Jeinimeni National Reserve
Chile
The drive from Villa Cerro Castillo along the Carretera Austral was awe-inspiring. While we had seen almost none of this on our first day due to the miserable weather, today we were granted sunshine and clear skies. Towering white peaks bordered the road and stretched out as far as the eye could see, with turquoise lakes shimmering in the valleys. Now we understood why this region was so famous.
Lago Jeinimeni
Distance: 12 km
Hiking Time: 2:28 hr
Ascent: 387m
Jeinimeni offered 2 treks I was hoping to complete in one day. The first didn't seem to be as popular online, but it involved walking around the edge of Lago Jeinimeni to lookout points over the lake. It was a slow drive along a gravel road with rabbits hopping around, but it was just as breathtaking as the Carretera Austral.
The lake, however, wasn't as impressive as I had imagined. The first part of the hike involved climbing directly uphill through a pine forest to a series of wooden platforms looking out over the water. There were a couple of mountains with a sprinkling of snow in the distance and a few condors flying around, but otherwise the views were unremarkable.
Next, we followed a dirt track halfway around the lake before it turned off towards another viewpoint. This one was much more photoworthy, with the entire lake laid out before us and slightly more snow in the background. It was a shame we didn't have time to continue on to the next lake, Lago Verde, which appeared to be a lot closer to the snowy peaks. Instead, we retraced our steps back to the car and set off for hike number 2.
Valle Lunar
Distance: 9.2 km
Hiking Time: 2:08 hr
Ascent: 493m
The next trek was the one that everyone raved about: Piedra Clavada + Cueva de las Manos + Valle Lunar. It was a short circuit (by our standards) along a well-marked trail, with ever-changing scenery and informational boards along the way. Danny was suffering snow blindness after climbing the snow-covered Cerro Castillo yesterday without sunglasses and needed to rest. I took off alone.
After a kilometre of hiking across a windswept grassy plain, the trail turned up a narrow valley filled with gigantic boulders and rocky outcrops jutting straight out of the earth. One of these rocks was the Piedra Clavada (Nailed Stone), a 30-metre tall vertical column shaped by glaciers about 160 million years ago. I guess it looked vaguely like a nail. Along the way, I stopped briefly at a rock face that contained faded red handprints, which were apparently 5,000 years old. Even with the illustrated sign next to me, it took me a while to spot them.
Next, the trail led steeply up a muddy path out of the valley, eventually arriving at a lookout. The view from the top was outstanding. I didn't need the sign to tell me I had reached Valle Lunar (Lunar Valley). Upright rocky protuberances sat in the basin of the valley, in various shades of red, white and everything in between. It was reminiscent of Rainbow Valley in Atacama but on a much grander scale and observed from a higher vantage point. The scenery was second to none.
Just past the viewpoint was the Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands), where there were more red and white handprints that again took an eternity to locate (the position of the barricade, far back from the cave wall, didn't help). The signboard said there were also several paintings of guanacos (a relative of the llama), but all I could make out were a series of pale red blobs. One look at the Lunar Valley and it wasn’t hard to see where the indigenous people sourced their red pigment from.
I was treated to continuous views of the Lunar Valley as I slowly descended the mountain. It was tempting to go right up to the nearby rock pillars, but one slip on the loose stones and I would have been sliding my way right to the bottom (or into another boulder). I loved this section and wished there had been more paths to explore it further, but the trail soon turned towards the car park and all views disappeared.
From the car park, I followed a new, accessible path (it only opened a week ago) that led out to a different view of the Lunar Valley, this one much closer to ground level. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the what I had seen from above, but I appreciated one more glimpse of this amazing scenery.
