New trails and new campgrounds, a fantastic new interpretive center and planetarium, increasing wildlife, a lovely lodge, and ancient Cueva de las Manos cave art mean you could easily spend a week in this remote and wild park in southern Argentina. Here’s how to explore Parque Patagonia.

How to explore Parque Patagonia in Argentina

We visited Parque Patagonia for the first time in 2020. At that time, there were no campgrounds, one hostel,  just a handful of trails, and, of course, the nearly 10,000-year-old cave art at Cueva de las Manos, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999. We enjoyed our visit–especially seeing a puma one evening on our way back to the hostel from Cueva de las Manos–but we’d pretty much done everything there was to do in just two days.

When we visited this park again in 2025, however, we discovered many new trails and terrific new campgrounds (for tents and for RVs). The hostel is now a lodge, and the park is now home to a world-class interpretive center and planetarium. Visitors also have the chance to meet conservationists working in the park to see the results of their rewilding efforts.

What is Parque Patagonia and what can I do in the park?

Parque Patagonia is a protected area with public access created in Santa Cruz Province in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina. Landscapes include steppe grasslands, canyons, mesas, and wetlands. Much of the land was used to raise livestock before it was protected. As the habitat returns to its natural, ungrazed state, native species return as well, including some wild animals that are being reintroduced to this habitat after years of absence.

The Rewilding Argentina Foundation–an offshoot of Tompkins Conservation, the conservation powerhouse created by Doug Tompkins and Kristine Tompkins that has purchased, restored, and donated hundreds of thousands of acres of ranchland as parks in Argentina and Chile–has been working to protect nature and create Patagonia National Park, including a part dontated to the National Parks Administration to create Parque Patagonia in Argentina which was intended to be connected to Patagonia National Park in Chile. However, politics and red tape have gotten in the way thus far.

The tiny site-specific Cueva de las Manos provincial park is also within Parque Patagonia, but this is overseen by the Santa Cruz provincial government.

All in all, Parque Patagonia has five areas that are managed by three different entities. Argentina’s National Parks Administration manages areas around the La Ascención and El Sauco entrances. Cueva de las Manos is in the hands of the provincial government. And areas around the Cañadon Caracoles and Cañadon Pinturas entrances are administered by Rewilding Argentina.

The Cañadon Pinturas entrance serves the area where many of the trails are located as well as the lodge, the developed campgrounds, the interpretive center and planetarium, and hiking access to Cueva de las Manos. Portal Cañadon Caracoles also offers driving access to Cueva de las Manos along with the Cañadon Caracoles campground and trails.

The La Ascención entrance, 59 miles (95 km) from the Cañadon Pinturas entrance, is located along the shore of Lago Buenos Aires between the towns of Perito Moreno and Los Antiguos. The La Ascención entrance gives access to the lake, a few short trails (including the Cerro Calle trail and the Laguna Koa trail), as well as longer trails that climb Meseta Lago Buenos Aires and travel across the meseta to the El Sauco entrance, which is the most remote.

Most of the activities and facilities in this post are accessed via the Cañadon Pinturas entrance to Parque Patagonia (6,000 ARS / about US$4.25 per person, credit cards accepted, no pets allowed).  Now, here are terrific ways to explore Parque Patagonia.

Spot wildlife in Parque Patagonia

It’s worth bringing a pair of binoculars with you to Parque Patagonia, and always keep your eyes peeled for wildlife.

Rhea (aka choique, an ostrich-like flightless bird) and guanaco (the llama’s wild cousin) are abundant as are many species of birds, including adorable pigmy owls and soaring Andean condors. We saw a puma during our first visit to Parque Patagonia and, since then, the population of pumas in Parque Patagonia has grown–though it’s still rare to see one.

Other rarely seen wildlife in Parque Patagonia include Andean skunks, pampas cats, pigmy armadillos, culpeo foxes, and Wolfson’s viscacha. Efforts to reintroduce huemul deer are ongoing, and, over time, that majestic species is expected to return to the ecosystem as well.

Go hiking in Parque Patagonia

Most trailheads have dry toilets and a small parking area. Bring water, sunscreen, a hat, good hiking shoes, and any other necessities. There’s little shade and no facilities, though there is a small cafe in the interpretive center and a small snack shop near the La Señelada campground near the interpretive center. Currently, there are about a dozen trails in the park that are easily reached from the Cañadon Pinturas entrance. Here’s where we went hiking in Parque Patagonia.

Cañadon Caracoles trail

This mostly flat gravel and dirt trail travels into the Cañadon Caracoles canyon and hikers can continue in as far as they like before turning around and walking back out.

We walked in for 3.7 miles(6 km), and, along the way, we saw many black-chested buzzard eagles, two flamingos, some puma prints and puma poop, and two Andean condors.

With enough time and planning, hikers can walk 8 miles (13 km) to where Cañadon Caracoles meets the Rio Pinturas where you can connect to several other trails. You can continue all the way to Cueva de las Manos, but that’s more than an 11-mile (18-km) hike.

There’s a campground with a few tent sites, picnic tables, and dry toilets at the Cañadon Caracoles trailhead, along with a parking area and a ranger station. And it’s possible to go rock climbing in the Cañadón Caracoles area of the park, where 60 routes have been set. There’s also an indoor climbing wall in the interpretation center in the park (see below).

The Cañadon Caracoles area is accessed via the Cañadon Caracoles entrance located 20 miles (33 km) south of the Cañadon Pinturas entrance.

La Guanaca trail up to Cerro Amarillo

The La Guanaca trail is a 3.7-mile (6-km) round trip in and out walk that takes hikers up to the top of Cerro Amarillo.

The ascent is fairly gentle and, once on top of the flat top of the cerro, the views are fantastic. You’re also likely to see Andean condors soaring overhead.  Allow two hours round trip, plus any snacking and resting time up on the bluff. There are dry toilets and a parking area at the La Guanaca trailhead.

This trail is accessed via the Cañadon Pinturas entrance.

Check out the condor that paid us a brief visit when we reached the top of Cerro Amarillo in our video below.

Los Balcones trail

When we finished the La Guanaca trail, we decided to tack on the neighboring Los Balcones trail, which is a 1-mile (1.7-km) stroll through steppe grasslands.

This trail starts at the parking area for the La Guanaca trail and follows the rim of the Cañadon del Rio Pinturas, ending at the parking area for the Bajada de Los Toldos trail to Cueva de las Manos. Hikers enjoy canyon views, and you can also see Cueva de las Manos across the canyon.

This trail is accessed via the Cañadon Pinturas entrance.

Tierra de Colores trail

The Tierra de Colores trail was one of the few trails open to visitors to Parque Patagonia in 2020. The trailhead is very close to the Cañadon Pinturas entrance, and because the trail is short and sweet, many visitors choose to hike this trail immediately after they enter the park.

This 2-mile (3.5-km) loop trail is all about showcasing a landscape of sloping hills richly tinted by natural minerals. When we did this hike in 2020, the trail took visitors directly into a section where hikers were surrounded by the colored hillsides.

The Tierra de Colores trail no longer allows that access (it was too damaging) and now re-routes hikers to vantage points above the dramatic colors. Two miradors give hikers a good look at the impressively vivid colors.

Allow about an hour to do the full loop. There are dry toilets and a parking area at the Tierra de Colores trailhead.

This trail is accessed via the Cañadon Pinturas entrance.

Get a bird ‘s-eye view of the vibrant natural colors in the Tierra de Colores area of Parque Patagonia in our drone video below.

Cerro La Calle & Lagoa Koa trails

From the La Asuncion entrance, drive a few miles to an old building with a small parking area to find the trailhead for the Lagoa Koa trail.

This 3.7-mile (6-km) trail leads to Lagoa Koa. Along the way, hikers pass Cerro La Calle, an old lava formation that cooled into a columnar formation similar to Devil’s Postpile in the United States. When we hiked this trail, we saw black-necked swans on Lagoa Koa and groups of guanaco. On our return hike back out, we diverted up into a break in the Cerro La Calle formation and circled around from the back.

This trail is accessed via the La Ascención entrance.

Bajada de los Toldos and Cueva de las Manos trail

During our first visit to Parque Patagonia in 2020, we hiked to Cueva de las Manos. After a one-hour drive from Posta de los Toldos, we reached the trailhead for the Bajada de los Toldos trail and began an extremely steep descent into the canyon. At the bottom, we crossed a bridge, then climbed up the other side on the Cueva de las Manos trail to reach the site itself.

These trails have recently been upgraded and realigned by re-routing the steepest section into a series of gentle switchbacks. This means the total trail distance is a bit longer than the 3 miles (5 kms) that we walked each way, but far less steep and much, much easier on the knees.

Along the way, we saw a lesser horned owl near the bridge at the bottom of the canyon, where there are now picnic tables.

This trail is accessed via the Cañadon Pinturas entrance.

See ancient art in Cueva de las Manos

Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) is home to some of the oldest and best-preserved examples of ancient cave art in the Americas. Located in Cañadon Rio de Pinturas, Cueva de las Manos is a series of shallow open-mouth caves in a rockface high above the canyon floor.

As far back as 7,300 BC, Indigenous hunter/gatherer groups began decorating the cave by pressing a hand against the cave wall, then throwing or blowing natural mineral pigments (mostly red, black, blue, and yellow) toward it, leaving behind a reverse image of the hand. A few of the handprints take the opposite approach and were made by dipping the hand into pigment, then touching the cave wall to create a positive handprint.

Cueva de las Manos was first explored by archaeologists in the 1960s, and scientific work is ongoing. The caves were made a National Historic Monument in 1993, and Cueva de las Manos was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.

We were told that there are 829 known handprints at Cueva de las Manos. Some hands are small, some hands are large. Only 30 of them depict right hands. And a few of the hands have six fingers.

While hands are, by far, the predominant motif, there are also depictions of guanacos, huemul deer, a full moon, armadillos, hunting scenes, and odd anthropomorphic creatures created with traditional painting techniques. Basic shapes such as concentric circles, jagged zig-zags, stars, and dots (made by dipping a round stone covered in guanaco skin into pigment, then throwing it up onto an overhead section of cave to make a dot) are also present. And a few of the images were made by dipping the enormous feet of a rhea bird into pigment and pressing it against the cave wall.

Guided hour-long tours take visitors slowly along a 0.5-mile (1-km) gravel trail that passes in front of the caves to see the cave art. There are some stairs and some brief steep sections. The tour ends at a viewpoint for a look down the scenic valley before everyone doubles back along the same trail. There used to be a small museum at Cueva de las Manos, but it was closed when we visited in 2025. Tours are available in English, though your guide may not have strong English skills.

Though there are a series of caves in the escarpment, most of the art is on the outer rock wall protected by overhangs. Despite its age and relative exposure to the elements, the cave art at Cueava de las Manos is amazingly vibrant and distinct.

Cueva de las Manos is within the Cueva de las Manos Provincial Park, which is administered by the Santa Cruz provincial authorities. Your entry fee to Parque Patagonia does not include entrance to the cave, which is 36,000 ARS (about US$25) per person. You can reserve in advance here, or you can get a ticket at the site by scanning a QR code and purchasing on your phone. Cueva de las Manos is open year-round, though tours are sometimes halted due to high wind or rain.

Pro tips: In general, this site is busiest in the afternoon. You don’t need a flashlight to see this cave art. And if you don’t want to hike to Cueva de los Manos (see above), you can drive to Cueva de las Manos via the Cañadon Caracoles entrance, which is 20 miles (33 km) south of the Cañadon Pinturas entrance. If you’re arriving from the south, you can also access Cuevas de las Manos from the town of Bajo Caracoles which is 45 miles (73 km) to the south.

See more in our photo essay from Cueva de las Manos.

Visit the interpretation center and planetarium

Be prepared to have your breath taken away by the interpretation center and planetarium inside Parque Patagonia.

The facade of the striking low building is covered in thin wood posts used to make the ranch fences that criss-crossed this land before Rewilding Argentina removed them and recycled them as poignnat siding.  Inside, visitors find an interpretation center with sophisticated interactive displays that tell the story of human evolution (signs are in English and in Spanish).

At the center of the facility is a giant red orb. This is the planetarium. A donation from scientist and author Elsa Rosenvasser Feher, the planetarium brings the sky above the park to life. Narration can be selected in a number of languages, including English. Beyond the planetarium, stargazers should just look up. The lack of light pollution in this remote place makes Parque Patagonia a great place for checking out the constellations and the Milky Way on clear nights.

Entrance to the interpretation center and the planetarium is free, and this facility also has a coffee shop and a small gift shop selling high-quality handmade items, tees, tote bags, notebooks, and more.

Witness rewilding in action

The work of the Rewilding Argentina Foundation in Parque Patagonia, with the support of the Freyja Foundation, focuses on two main areas of conservation: reclamation and restoration of ecosystems to their natural state, and the reintroduction or “rewilding” of the animal species that are endemic to that ecosystem. At Parque Patagonia, travelers have a unique opportunity to see those efforts in action.

Guided day trips to the El Unco biological station, located within park boundaries, can be arranged, including transportation, a guide, and a box lunch. Visitors will meet conservationists and learn, firsthand, about monitoring and restoration work and what’s been achieved in Parque Patagonia so far.

During our visit to El Unco, we walked with a conservationist through restored wetlands in a long stretch of Cañadon Caracoles, where we saw a lush and animal-filled ecosystem that was in stark contrast to the dry and barren unrestored lower reaches of the very same canyon, which we’d hiked through the previous day.

We also spent time looking for Wolfson’s viscacha, a rabbit-like critter that lives in niches in rocky cliff faces. This adorable animal is infuriatingly hard to spot because there are very few of them and because their fur is essentially the same color as the rock they live in. Luckily, conservationist Emanuel brought a tracking device that helped us find the collared viscachas.

Efforts to reintroduce huemul deer to the park are also being spearheaded at El Unco, as is work to eradicate invasive weeping willow trees.

After our hike, Emmanuel showed us the program that interfaces with data from collared animals in Parque Patagonia, including four collared pumas. It was exciting to see that one of the pumas had been just a couple of hundred yards from La Posta de los Toldos the night we arrived. If you have even a passing interest in conservation, a visit to El Unco will fuel that passion and prove that positive environmental results are possible.

Where can I sleep in Parque Patagonia?

Accommodations in Parque Patagonia include options for travelers looking for a hotel and those looking for a lovely place to pitch a tent or park an RV.

La Posta de los Toldos lodge

When Parque Patagonia opened, the former home of the owner of the land when it was still the Estancia Toldos ranch was turned into a hostel to serve the park’s initial visitors. La Posta de los Toldos hostel opened in November of 2019, and that’s where we stayed during our first visit to the park.

When we returned to La Posta de los Toldos in 2025, its homey shared spaces–a sunny sitting area with a wood-burning stove, a peaceful library, an open kitchen, a communal dining table–remained the same. The nine shared dorm-style rooms, however, had been transformed into stylish private double, triple, or quadruple accommodations, all with private bathrooms (US$250 per person to US$280 per person including three meals and afternoon tea each day; bed-and-breakfast rates are available too). One room is accessible for guests with mobility challenges.

Each evening, an informative presentation about the park (in English and in Spanish) is offered in the hotel’s library. Don’t skip it.

Camping in Parque Patagonia

Five new campgrounds can be accessed via the Cañadon Pinturas entrance to Parque Patagonia. Togeter, they offer 28 tent sites, some with wind breaks and some with roof coverings as well. All camping areas have dry toilets, and most have running water and hot and cold showers. The El Mollar campground, located next to the lodge, also has a cabin-like shared shelter with tables and chairs, a wood-burning stove, and bathrooms with flush toilets.

All campgrounds are free, except for El Mollar where campers are charged 10,000 ARS (about US$7) per person per night. RVs can be parked at the El Mollar campground and at the La Señalada campground. However, there are no electrical hookups or dump stations.

You can drive into all of the campgrounds except for La Confluencia Campground, which requires a 6-mile (10-km) hike in and out, and the Del Rio campground, which you also must hike into and out of. Both are located at the bottom of the Cañadon Rio Pinturas.

There are four other campgrounds in other sectors of this park. All campgrounds, including the free ones, must be reserved at least 15 days in advance.

When should I visit Parque Patagonia?

Parque Patagonia is open from October to April during South American summer when temperatures are milder. However, winds can be stronger during the summer. The landscape was much greener and there were many flowering plants during our second visit to this park in December than it was in the month of February when we visited Parque Patagonia for the first time.

How do I get to Parque Patagonia?

Parque Patagonia is remote, but the effort to get there is well-rewarded.

For travelers driving Argentina’s famous Ruta 40 that runs the length of the country along the Andes, getting to Parque Patagonia is simple–just pull off the pavement when you reach the Cañadon Pinturas park entrance between the tiny village of Bajo Caracoles, 45 miles (73 km) to the south and Perito Moreno town 35 miles (57 km) to the north. NOTE: Perito Moreno town is NOT the same thing as the Perito Moreno Glacier, which is located near the town of El Calafate, or Perito Moreno National Park much further south.

If you’re not driving Ruta 40, you’ll have to fly into the city of Comodoro Rivadavia (the largest city in southern Argentine Patagonia), on the Atlantic Coast. Rent a vehicle there, then drive a bit more than five hours southeast for 284 miles (457 km) to reach the park. A 4X4 vehicle is not required to visit this park, which has well-maintained gravel roads within its boundaries.

Perito Moreno town has an airstrip, however, it’s too short for most planes. It is possible to book a private flight into Perito Moreno town through Horizon Explorer or Dosom Conecta. From Perito Moreno town, it takes about an hour to drive the 35 miles (56 km) to the Cañadon Pinturas entrance to Parque Patagonia.

A company called Chalten Travel runs a shuttle bus between El Calafate, El Chalten, and Bariloche and it stops at the Cañadon Pinturas park entrance. If you plan to arrive this way, contact the park in advance to arrange a transfer (for a fee) from the park entrance to La Posta de Los Toldos lodge or to La Señalada campground. Send an email to destino@parquepatagoniaargentina.org to reserve your transfer.

Just want to visit Parque Patagonia for the day on an organized tour with transportation and a guide? Here are Parque Patagonia day trip options.

 

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