steve a

We start the day with a nice breakfast with a family at a neighboring campsite. Zach has been playing soccer with one of their sons so they invite us over. They have so much stuff that they need a decent-sized trailer to haul it all...and it can hardly be called camping. After breakfast, it takes us about an hour and a half to break everything down and pack the car, which is less than I thought it would so we're out on the road earlier than we'd planned. It turns out to be a good thing, because we've got a long day of driving ahead of us. We head east through some scenic countryside, the road hugging the Trinity River as it passes through the Trinity National Forest. I watch many taking advantage of the river, ... read more

We're up and ready for some hiking today. I spent a bit of time researching the trails in the multitude of hiking guides before flying out and realized that there are so many trails here that two days are only enough to barely scratch the surface so I have to pick carefully. I'm screening for distance (the kids aren't babies anymore and we've hiked enough in the past that I'm figuring about 7 miles in a day is a good target), difficulty (we've done some pretty tough hikes, up an active volcano in Guatemala and a mountain in Chile but moderate is about what I'm aiming for) and scenery (we're here for redwoods so I want to see old-growth forest, the oldest, biggest, tallest trees that escaped the lumberjack's axe and the developer's bulldozer). I've imported ... read more

The sky is cloudy and there is an intermittent light rain. We can no longer see the volcano. After breakfast, we head over to the Saltos de Petrohué which was very nice. We got there early, but still there were a lot of tourists since this is only a few minutes down the road from the Chilean side of the lakes crossing into Argentina across the Lago Todos Los Santos. I am surprised at the high number of tour buses running up and down this road. We did take the extra few minutes and go all the way down to the lake but there really isn’t much there unless you’re getting on the boat heading over to Argentina or staying at the hotel there. The lake itself didn’t seem as spectacular as we’d been led to ... read more

The weather is beautiful, sun is shining and sky is clear and blue. We head down toward Cochamó and Puelo, two very small towns along the Reloncaví Estuary. The road is gravel for a good portion of the distance and there’s not much traffic, which is a good thing because the views of the volcanoes, especially Osorno, are beautiful and we make a lot of stops for pictures. If we had more time, we would have made the drive a loop and taken a ferry over the river to a different road for the return to Ensenada but we have activities scheduled for the afternoon. Another day or so in this area, and we would have gone horseback riding overnight deeper into the Cochamó Valley, which is supposed to be quite nice and similar to Yosemite ... read more

The clouds are gone and the sun is out. The view from the front porch of the cabin and out the huge glass window is of clear blue Lago Villarrica and the volcano, Volcán Villarrica. Smiles all around, beautiful view. After breakfast we head out to Parque Nacional Huerquehue (Huerquehue National Park), about an hour away. We like to see national parks back at home in the US and like to stamp our park passport book but here we settle for pictures in front of the sign. This is our second Chilean national park for those counting at home. We set out on the Sendero de los Lagos (Lakes Trail) to see…you guessed it, lakes. The trail passes through some real nice forest of Araucaria trees in the beginning which looks pretty nice but then the ... read more