CARRETERA AUSTRAL
Day Five - Chaiten Volcano & Pumalin Park
Posted on 23rd Feb 2016
Photo: Overlooking the El Amarillo glacier.
After waking at first light we packed up the tent and continued five km's south down the parks main gravel road to the base of the Chaiten volcano: a volcano that erupted in May 2008 destroying the town of Chaitén and even depositing a fine layer of ash as far away as Bariloche.
We followed the steep, well marked trail to the crater rim to get a closer look at the central dome which is continually steaming from the volcanoes residual heat from the eruption. After heading back to the car we drove out of the northern section of the Pumalin park to the town of Chaitén for lunch.
We dropped our hitch-hikers off at the bus station and continued to the southern section of the Pumalin Park, 'El Amarillo'. Just as we stopped to pick up some more hitch-hikers we found the previous hitch-hikers had left their camera on the roof of the car and it had remarkably stayed there for the 20 km's! We headed back to Chaitén to return the camera then back to El Amarillo again. We first headed at a small thermal pool but it was overrun with people so we dicided to give it a miss. We headed into the park on a rougher gravel road as it weaved its way over small bridges and through the forest towards the Ventisquero El Amarillo camp-site only to find a barrier across the road and a signpost indicating a two and a half hour trail to the camp site via a viewpoint. Expecting to have been able to drive directly to the camp site we hastily packed our rucksacks with everything needed for an overnight camp, left the car and headed out on the trail.
A rather steep trail brought us to the viewpoint, the glacier was spectacular. We descended to the lush green grassed camp site only to find it was technically closed (hence the barrier in the road where we had left the car!). We camped here anyway as it was getting late and watched the sun set over the Michinmahuida volcano and had an early night.