Jeinimeni-Avilés Traverse
Travesía Jeinimeni-Avilés
A wild three to four day crossing of Patagonia National Park in Chilean Aysén, from the Jeinimeni sector over the mountains and down the Avilés valley to the Casa de Piedra campsite in the Chacabuco valley.
At a glance
- Starts in
- Jeinimeni sector
- Ends in
- Casa de Piedra, Valle Chacabuco
- Length
- 46 km
- On foot
- 3–4 days
- Countries
Chile- Best months
- October–April
About the trail
Patagonia National Park was created on 11 December 2018 in Chile's Aysén region and protects about 304,500 hectares, bringing together the Jeinimeni sector, the Chacabuco valley and the Tamango sector. Herds of guanacos graze its grasslands, and around a tenth of Chile's remaining huemul, the South Andean deer, live in the park.
The traverse links the Jeinimeni sector with the Chacabuco valley, following the valley of the Avilés river in its southern part, where a suspension footbridge crosses the canyon some 40 m above the water.
Ruta de los Parques de la Patagonia describes a demanding route of three nights from Jeinimeni to the Casa de Piedra campsite, recommends October to April and warns that river crossings may need wading, as water levels rise quickly with rain and melting ice. CONAF gives three to four days for the whole route and asks all visitors to register with the administration of the sector where they start.
Length measured on the OpenStreetMap line; no official figure checked yet.