Torres del Paine National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine) is a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

encompassing mountains, glaciers, lakes, and rivers in southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

. The

Cordillera del Paine The Cordillera Paine is a mountain group in Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. The cordillera is located north of Punta Arenas, and about south of the Chilean capital Santiago. It belongs to the Commune of Torres del Paine ...

is the centerpiece of the park. It lies in a transition area between the

Magellanic subpolar forests The Magellanic subpolar forests () are a terrestrial ecoregion of southernmost South America, covering parts of southern Chile and Argentina, and are part of the Neotropical realm. It is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion, and ...

and the Patagonian Steppes. The park is located north of

Puerto Natales Puerto Natales is a city in Chilean Patagonia. It is the capital of both the commune of Natales and the province of Última Esperanza, one of the four provinces that make up the Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region in the southernmost part ...

and north of

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Are ...

. The park borders

Bernardo O'Higgins National Park Bernardo O'Higgins National Park () is the largest of the protected areas in Chile, covering an area of in both the Aysén and Magallanes and Antártica Chilena regions. Management of this and other national parks in Chile is entrusted to the ...

to the west and the

Los Glaciares National Park Los Glaciares National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares) is a federal protected area in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The park covers an area of , making it the largest national park in the country. Established on 11 May 1937, it host ...

to the north in

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

territory. ''Paine'' means "blue" in the native Tehuelche (Aonikenk) language and is pronounced ''PIE-neh'', while ''Torres'' means "towers". It was established as a National Park in 1959. Torres del Paine National Park is part of the ''Sistema Nacional de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas del Estado de Chile'' (National System of Protected Forested Areas of Chile). In 2013, it measured approximately . It is one of the largest and most visited parks in Chile. The park averages around 252,000 visitors a year, of which 54% are foreign tourists, who come from many countries all over the world. It is also part of the

End of the World Route The End of the World Route (Spanish: ''Ruta del Fin del Mundo'') is a Chilean touristic scenic route located in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic Region, the most southerly region of the country. The term "end of the world" refers to Chile being ...

, a tourist

scenic route A scenic route, tourist road, tourist route, tourist drive, holiday route, theme route, or scenic byway is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. It often passes by scenic viewpoints ...

. The park is one of the 11 protected areas of the Magallanes Region and Chilean Antarctica (together with four national parks, three national reserves, and three national monuments). Together, the protected forested areas comprise about 51% of the land of the region (). The Torres del Paine are the distinctive three

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

peaks of the Paine mountain range or Paine Massif. From left to right they are known as Torres d'Agostini, Torres Central and Torres Monzino. They extend up to above sea level and are joined by the Cuernos del Paine. The area also boasts valleys, rivers such as the Paine, lakes, and glaciers. The well-known lakes include

Grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be compos ...

, Pehoé, Nordenskiöld, and Sarmiento. The glaciers, including

, Pingo, and

Tyndall Tyndall (the original spelling, also Tyndale, "Tindol", Tyndal, Tindoll, Tindall, Tindal, Tindale, Tindle, Tindell, Tindill, and Tindel) is the name of an English family taken from the land they held as tenants in chief of the Kings of Engla ...

, belong to the Southern Patagonia Ice Field.

History

Lady Florence Dixie, in her book published in 1880, gave one of the first descriptions of the area and referred to the three towers as ''Cleopatra's Needles''. Available a
the internet archive.
/ref> She and her party are sometimes credited as being the first "foreign tourists" to visit the area that is now called Torres del Paine National Park. Several European scientists and explorers visited the area in the following decades, including Otto Nordenskiöld,

Carl Skottsberg Carl Johan Fredrik Skottsberg (1 December 1880 – 14 June 1963) was a Swedish botanist and explorer of Antarctica. Life Skottsberg was born in Karlshamn on 1 December 1880 the son of Carl Adolf Skottsberg a schoolmaster and his wife, Maria L ...

, and Alberto María de Agostini.

Gunther Plüschow Gunther Plüschow (February 8, 1886 – January 28, 1931) was a German aviator, aerial explorer and author from Munich, Bavaria. His feats include the only escape by a German prisoner of war in World War I from Britain back to Germany; he was ...

was the first person to fly over the Paine

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

. The park was established on 13 May 1959 as ''Parque Nacional de Turismo Lago Grey'' (Grey Lake National Tourism Park) and was given its present name in 1970. In 1976, British mountaineer John Garner and two Torres del Paine rangers, Pepe Alarcon and Oscar Guineo pioneered the Circuit trail which circles the Paine massif. In 1977,

Guido Monzino Count Guido Monzino (2 March 1928 – 11 October 1988) was a twentieth-century Italian mountain climber and explorer. In 1973, he led the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest. He was the son of Franco Monzino, who founded the ...

donated 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) to the Chilean Government when its definitive limits were established. The park was designated a World

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

in 1978.UNESCO
- Park description at UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve

Fires

In 1985, a tourist started a fire that burned about of the park. The blaze affected the areas east and south around

Lake Pehoé Lake Pehoé () is a surface water body located in Torres del Paine National Park, in the Magallanes Region of southern Chile. The lake is fed mainly by Paine River through the Nordenskjöld Lake, but it also receives the waters of the outlet of '' ...

. In February 2005, an accidental fire started by a Czech backpacker, which lasted for about ten days, destroyed of the park, including about 2 km² of native forest. The Czech government offered aid after the fire and donated 1 million to reforestation efforts. In late December 2011 through January 2012, an Israeli backpacker was found guilty of having started a fire after being caught by a park ranger when lighting up some paper roll in a forbidden area. This burned about of the reserve, destroying about 36 km² of native forest and affecting most of the areas around

and the western areas around Lake Sarmiento, but moving away from the

, the park's centerpiece. Nevertheless, recent paleoenvironmental studies performed within the Park indicate that fires have been frequent phenomena at least during the last 12,800 years.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

, the park lies in the “temperate climate of cold rain without a dry season." The meteorological conditions of the park are variable due to the complex

orography Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader discip ...

. The park is famous for its strong winds. The windiest months are November - January, which coincides with the peak tourism season.

Temperatures

The zone is characterized by cool summers, with temperatures lower than during the warmest month (January). Winter is relatively cold, with an average high temperature in July of , and an average low of .

Precipitation

The rainiest months are March and April, with a monthly average rainfall of 80 mm. This represents double the July–October (winter) rainfall, which are the drier months. A study of the exact chemical components of the precipitation in the park has been carried out.

Hydrology

The park possesses a large drainage network, which consists of numerous rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and cascades that come from the Southern Patagonia Ice Field and flow towards the southeast until the Última Esperanza Sound that bathes the coasts of the city of

. The courses of water come from a longitudinal profile and are very turbulent with brusque changes in course, generated by waterfalls and rapids. The

Southern Patagonian Ice Field The Southern Patagonian Ice Field ( es, Hielo Continental or '), located at the Southern Patagonic Andes between Chile and Argentina, is the world's second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field. It is the bigger of two remnant parts of the P ...

takes up the entire western side of the park. The Southern Patagonian Ice Field feeds four main glaciers; they are from north to south the glaciers: Dickson, Grey, Zapata, and Tyndall. This last glacier is rapidly receding. The largest is Glacier Grey. It is divided into two arms, because of the appearance of a peninsula of ice, commonly called the Island or Nunatak, that becomes apparent a little more with each year that passes. The eastern arm measures about 1.2 km while the western has a width of around 3.6 km. The longitude of the glacier in its path towards the interior of the park is 15 km. Studies of the glaciers in the park have given scientists a clearer picture of the epochs of the earth, or what happened after the last glacial age.

Geography

The landscape of the park is dominated by the Paine massif, which is an eastern spur of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

located on the east side of the

Grey Glacier Grey Glacier is a glacier in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, just west of the Cordillera del Paine. It flows southward into the lake of the same name. Before dividing in two at its front end, the glacier is 6 kilometers wide and over 30 met ...

, rising dramatically above the

Patagonian steppe The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonian Steppe, is the largest desert in Argentina and is the 8th largest desert in the world by area, occupying 673,000 square kilometers (260,000 mi2). It is located primarily in Argentina and ...

. Small valleys separate the granite spires and mountains of the massif. These are: ''Valle del Francés'' (French Valley), ''Valle Bader'', ''Valle Ascencio'', and ''Valle del Silencio'' (Silence Valley). The head of French Valley is a

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landf ...

formed by tall cliffs. The colossal walls of ''Cerro Cota 2000'' and ''Cerro Catedral'' punctuate the western region of the Valley. Cerro Cota 2000 is named for its elevation; its highest

contour line A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional gr ...

is about . Cerro Catedral is named so because its east face resembles a

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

's facade. To the north stands the granite

arête An arête ( ) is a narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequ ...

called ''Aleta de Tiburón'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

: Shark's Fin). To the east, from north to south, lie the peaks ''Fortaleza'' (Fortress), ''La Espada'' (The Sword), ''La Hoja'' (The Blade), ''La Máscara'' (The Mummer), ''Cuerno Norte'' (North Horn), and ''Cuerno Principal'' (Main Horn). In the Valley of Silence, the gigantic granite walls of ''Cerro Fortaleza'' and ''Cerro Escudo'' (Shield Mountain) stand face to face with the western faces of the ''Torres del Paine''. Ascencio Valley is the normal route to reach the Torres del Paine lookout, which is located at the bank of a milky green tarn. The highest mountain of the group is '' Paine Grande'', whose height was measured in 2011 using GPS and found to be . The

mantles a great portion of the park. Glaciers include the Dickson, the Grey, and the

. Among the lakes are the

Dickson Lake Dickson Lake is a glacier lake in southern Patagonia located in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which since 1998 has been transformed into an international lake as it is crossed by the international boundary between Argentina and Chile due to ...

, Nordenskjöld Lake,

, Grey Lake, Sarmiento Lake, and

Del Toro Lake Del Toro Lake ( es, Lago del Toro) is a lake located in the Magallanes Region, southern Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the ...

. Only a portion of the latter is within the borders of the park. All are vividly colored, most due to rock flour suspended in their waters. The main river flowing through the park is Paine River. Most of the rivers and lakes of the park drain into Última Esperanza Sound via Serrano River. Patagonia-62 (26027075260)

Geology

Much of the geology of the Paine Massif area consists of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

s that have been intruded by a

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

-aged

laccolith A laccolith is a body of intrusive rock with a dome-shaped upper surface and a level base, fed by a conduit from below. A laccolith forms when magma (molten rock) rising through the Earth's crust begins to spread out horizontally, prying apar ...

Orogenic Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An ''orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted t ...

and

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...

al processes have shaped the present-day topography, and glacial erosion is mainly responsible for the sculpturing of the massif in the last tens of thousands of years. A good example of the latter is the ''Cuernos del Paine'', whose central bands of exposed

contrast strongly with the dark aspect of their tops, which are remnants of a heavily eroded sedimentary stratum. In the case of ''Las Torres'', what once was their overlying sedimentary rock layer has been completely eroded away, leaving behind the more resistant granite. In June 2014, scientists uncovered

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s of at least 46 ancient specimens of nearly complete

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

s of dolphin-like creatures called

Ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, alt ...

s which lived between 245 and 90 million years ago. The finding came after melting glaciers revealed new rock faces beneath. During the last glacial period glacier extent in the area peaked about 48,000 years ago, much earlier than for the more northern locations of Chiloé and Llanquihue. During the late Pleistocene and early Holocene a series of

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around th ...

s existed in the Torres del Paine area. The last of these lakes, the

Great Tehuelche Paleolake The Paleolake Tehuelche is the name for several former lakes that existed in the area of Torres del Paine in southern Patagonia. These were proglacial lakes that existed next to the Patagonian Ice Sheet during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene ...

, covered what is now Sarmiento and Del Toro lakes plus a large area to east making Cazador Range a peninsula. The Great Tehuelche Paleolake vanished after being drained about 7,113

years before present Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becaus ...

. Ancient lake terraces marks the level attained by these lakes albeit great uncertainty exists regarding their evolution.

IUGS geological heritage site

In respect of it being 'a world class site for the study of structurally controlled emplacement and construction of shallow bimodal laccoliths', the

International Union of Geological Sciences The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of geology. About The IUGS was founded in 1961 and is a Scientific Union member of the Int ...

(IUGS) included 'The Miocene Torres del Paine intrusive complex' in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as 'a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.'

Biology

Flora

The last study of significant scope carried out concerning the flora of the park was realized by Pisano in 1974. This study examined four biotic zones that made up the territory of the park, determined by their vegetational type. Torres del Paine National Park is adorned with beautiful vegetation, including the evergreen ''

Embothrium coccineum ''Embothrium coccineum'', Chilean firetree or Chilean firebush, commonly known in Chile and Argentina as ''notro'', ''ciruelillo'' and ''fósforo'' is a small evergreen tree in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. It grows in the temperate for ...

'', which produces vivid red flowers grouped in corymbs, and ''

Calceolaria uniflora ''Calceolaria uniflora'' (syn. ''Calceolaria darwinii'', known as Darwin's slipper) is a perennial plant of the genus ''Calceolaria'', known as the slipperworts. It is originally from Tierra del Fuego in the southern part of South America."Bot ...

'', of striking shape and colors. The park has 7 documented species of

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

, including ''Chloraea magellanica''. In the park 85 non-native plant species have been recorded, of which 75 are of European origin and 31 are considered to be invasive. The park contains four vegetation zones:

, Pre-Andean shrubland,

and Andean Desert. The vegetation of the Patagonian steppe is dominated by

Fescue ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on ev ...

species (mainly ''Festuca gracillima''), which are resistant to harsh winds and weather conditions that are typical of the Patagonian region. Some of the dominant plant species of the Pre-Andean shrubland are ''Mulinum spinosum'' (a cushion plant) and ''

Escallonia rubra ''Escallonia rubra'', called redclaws and red escallonia, is a species in the family Escalloniaceae which is native to southern Chile and neighboring areas of Argentina. Description ''Escallonia rubra'' is a spreading shrub usually 0.8 to 1.0m ...

'', which are frequently associated with other species, including ''Anathrophyllun desideratum'' and '' Berberis buxifolia''. The Magellanic deciduous forest is home to various species of trees such as the ''

Nothofagus pumilio ''Nothofagus pumilio'', the lenga beech (from the Mapuche language), is a deciduous tree or shrub in the Nothofagaceae family that is native to the southern Andes range, in the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina to Tierra del Fuego, from 35 ...

'' and ''

Nothofagus antarctica ''Nothofagus antarctica'' (''Antarctic beech''; in Spanish ''Ñire'' or ''Ñirre'') is a deciduous tree or shrub native to southern Chile and Argentina from about 36°S to Tierra del Fuego (56° S), where it grows mainly in the diminishing tempe ...

''. Above the tree line in the Andean Desert, ''Escallonia rubra'', ''

Empetrum ''Empetrum'' is a genus of three species of dwarf evergreen shrubs in the heath family Ericaceae. They are commonly known as crowberries and bear edible fruit. They are commonly found in the northern hemisphere, from temperate to subarctic clima ...

rubrum'', and ''

Senecio ''Senecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes ragworts and groundsels. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus ''Senecio'' is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Description Mor ...

skottsbergii'' take the place of ''Nothofagus pumilio'' trees. A study on the beech trees and forest regeneration patterns in the park was published in 1992.

Fauna

Guanaco The guanaco (; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids, the other being the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Etymology The guanaco ...

s are one of the most common mammals found in the park. Other mammals include foxes and pumas. It is also home to the endangered Chilean Huemul. The puma's predation on guanacos in the park has been studied. The park contains breeding populations of 15

bird of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...

species and two others are likely reproducing here. Among them are

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the larg ...

black-chested buzzard-eagle The black-chested buzzard-eagle (''Geranoaetus melanoleucus'') is a bird of prey of the hawk and eagle family (Accipitridae). It lives in open regions of South America. This species is also known as the black buzzard-eagle, the gray buzzard-eag ...

rufous-tailed hawk The rufous-tailed hawk (''Buteo ventralis'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. The rufous-tailed hawk is found in southern Argentina and Chile, including the entire region of Tierra del Fuego. Its natural habitats are temp ...

, cinereous harrier, chimango caracara, magellanic horned owl, austral pygmy-owl, to name but a few. Other birds occurring in the park include the

Chilean flamingo The Chilean flamingo (''Phoenicopterus chilensis'') is a species of large flamingo at closely related to the American flamingo and the greater flamingo, with which it was sometimes considered conspecific. The species is listed as near threatened ...

Darwin's rhea Darwin's rhea or the lesser rhea (''Rhea pennata'') is a large flightless bird, the smaller of the two extant species of rheas. It is found in the Altiplano and Patagonia in South America. Description The lesser rhea stands at tall. Leng ...

coscoroba swan The coscoroba swan (''Coscoroba coscoroba'') is a species of waterfowl in subfamily Anserinae of the family Anatidae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the bi ...

, black-necked swan,

Magellanic woodpecker The Magellanic woodpecker (''Campephilus magellanicus'') is a very large woodpecker found in southern Chile and southwestern Argentina; it is resident within its range. This species is the southernmost example of the genus '' Campephilus'', which ...

Magellan goose The upland goose or Magellan goose (''Chloephaga picta'') is a sheldgoose of the Tadorninae, shelduck-sheldgoose subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological Family (biology), family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the G ...

, and

black-faced ibis The black-faced ibis (''Theristicus melanopis'') is a species of bird in the family Threskiornithidae. It is found in grassland and fields in southern and western South America. It has been included as a subspecies of the similar buff-necked i ...

. File:Guanako TDP.jpg,

File:Pterocnemia pennata.jpg,

Rheas The rheas ( ), also known as ñandus ( ) or South American ostriches, are large ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bone) in the order Rheiformes, native to South America, distantly related to the ostrich and emu. Most tax ...

File:Hippocamelus bisulcus, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile.jpg,

South Andean deer The south Andean deer (''Hippocamelus bisulcus''), also known as the southern guemal, south Andean huemul, southern huemul, or Chilean ''huemul'' or '' güemul'' ( , ), is an endangered species of deer native to the mountains of Argentina and Chi ...

File:Zorrito Chile.JPG,

South American gray fox The South American gray fox (''Lycalopex griseus''), also known as the Patagonian fox, the chilla or the gray zorro, is a species of ''Lycalopex'', the "false" foxes. It is endemic to the southern part of South America. Description The South A ...

File:Southern Caracara up close.jpg,

Crested Caracara The crested caracara (''Caracara plancus'') is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is found from the southern United States through Central and South America to Tierra del Fuego. It was formerly placed in the genus ''Polyborus''. Descrip ...

Tourism

The national park has over 252,000 visitors per year. It is a popular hiking destination in Chile. There are clearly marked paths and many '' refugios'' which provide shelter and basic services. Hikers can opt for a day trip to see the towers, French Valley or Glacier Grey or a multi-day trek. Multi-day treks include the popular "W" route, which takes about three to five days, and the full circuit or "O" route, which typically takes 7 to 9 days. The Refugio locations also have campsites and tent for hire. Cooking with the camp stove is not permitted except in Refugio locations. Camping is only allowed at specified campsites and wood fires are prohibited throughout the park. Since October 2016, it is mandatory to book campsites or refugios before entering the park. For less adventurous visitors, there are several hotels located in and around the park. A good time to visit Torres del Paine is between October and April because there is less rain. But, during high season the entrance fee is more expensive than between May and September. Some of Torres del Paine National Park attractions are Paine horns which are a group of mountains 2000 meters high in the middle of the W trek. There is a view of Pingo Lake from de Grey Glacier. Hikers are not allowed to stray from the paths in the national park. The visitor impact on the park has been scientifically measured. A certified guide is required to access some parts of the park. Visiting the park is recommended between September and April, during the southern spring, summer, and early autumn. During summer, daylight hours are long given the southern latitude. Outside of this time frame, the weather becomes extreme for the majority of the public. During the southern winter, daylight dwindles to only 8 hours a day. The park has been elected as the 8th Wonder of the World by TripAdvisor.

Access routes

The park can be reached by Chile Route 9, which is paved and connects

and

and continues as an asphalt road for 100 km and then becomes a gravel road. In the winter using tire chains is recommended due to unstable climatic conditions. The park can also be reached through maritime and aerial routes. There are buses that leave from Puerto Natales.

References

External links

*
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine at CONAFTorres del Paine at the Chile Tourism BoardPatagonia webcam at EarthCamTorresdelPaine.com
{{Authority control Biosphere reserves of Chile National parks of Chile Protected areas established in 1959 Protected areas of Magallanes Region Tourist attractions in Magallanes Region 1959 establishments in Chile 1959 in Chilean law Magellanic subpolar forests First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites