Chile’s Route of Parks Forges A New Path Forward For Travel

Photography @timothydhalleine

C

hile's route of parks has already been around a few years. But, it only seems like now that the world is really starting to catch up to the vision that Doug Tompkins (co-founder of North Face) and his wife Kristine McDivitt Tompkins (ex-CEO of Patagonia) forged years before.

A 1,740 mile — mostly dirt — trail that winds through previously inaccessible Patagonian landscapes, the Route of Parks represents a whole new frontier of sustainable travel that emphasizes conservation, the importance of supporting and uplifting local communities and deterring over-tourism. 

Today, we call this regenerative travel. And if you haven’t already read our conversation with Amanda Ho yet, she provides a lot of awesome context on the rising popularity and need for this kind of sustainable travel. 

The vision

As passionate outdoor enthusiasts, The Tompkins fell in love with Patagonia on trekking expeditions there in their youth. After they both retired in the early nineties, they moved to the area and began buying up land — 2.2 million acres in total. 

People were initially suspicious of the “gringo couple,” some speculating their goal was to halt development. Their goal? Protect the land — much of which had been degraded from years of sheep and cattle ranching — and rewild it. 

In 2018, the Tompkins made good on their promise by donating one million of the acres back to Chile, getting the Chilean government to match their donation with another nine million. This expansive swath of land now connects 17 national parks across Patagonia, spanning Puerto Montt in the north to Cape Horn in the famous Tierra del Fuego region in the south. From imposing mountain peaks overlooking shimmering blue lagoons, pristine forests with soaring ancient trees, dramatic granite towers with nothing but guanacos in sight for miles — the Route of Parks comprises an astonishing one-third of Chile.

What’s different and why it matters

Fundamentally, the Route of Parks is so much more than a nature reserve, but a framework for a more sustainable way to explore this remote corner of the world that’s faced over-tourism and degradation for decades. While Patagonia may still seem like one of the world’s great frontiers, in 2019, more than 300,000 people visited Torres del Paine alone. Route of Parks is opening up largely unexplored swaths of land, like Perito Moreno National Park, which in the same year, had just 272 visitors.

What’s more, the Tompkins’ envisioned a model of eco-tourism that, in coordination with preserving the land, works with the more than 60 local communities along the trail, many of whom live a traditional way of life dependent on farming and ranching. As Kris told The Guardian, “We look at conservation as offering an economic development. I say we are not taking land out of production but bringing in something else. We employ hundreds of people and instead of kids leaving the area, there’s a reason for them to stay. There’s an economy they can plug into.”

And there are numbers to back that up, too. With the hopes that gauchos take on the jobs of part-time guides and villages host travelers, projections (pre-Covid) suggested the Route of Parks could generate $270-million annually and 40,000 jobs.

How to experience the Route of Parks

La Ruta de los Parques completely changed the way we look at conservationism, as well as how we can more sustainably explore some of the lesser-known and most extreme areas of the Chilean south. So if you want to be one of the few (and some of the first) adventurers to trek these new remote parks, we have a few tips.

The first thing to know is that the new Route of Parks unites three existing routes: the Carretera Austral, the Patagonian fjords and channels and the End of the World Route. Doing it from start to finish takes approximately one month or more — but even a week on a portion of it is certain to change you.

Taking you through remote villages and scenery previously untouched by tourism, the trail is also vast enough to safely host large numbers of visitors at post-pandemic standards and encourages a slower pace of travel.

Encompassing four eco-regions, you can bear witness to everything on this route from lush rainforests to jagged glacier fields. Highlights include Kawésqar national park in the south, which is the second-largest national park in the country and home to the Magallanes Rainforest. At the northernmost part of the route, the newly created Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park features approximately one-quarter of Chile’s still-standing alerce trees. Related to the North American sequoias, these endangered trees can be up to 3,000 years old. Pumalín is also where you’ll find the impressive Michinmahuida and Chaitén Volcanoes. 

Do note: you’ll need to rent a car to tackle much of the route, and be warned that some of the roads are not for the faint of heart — it is wilderness, after all. The best place to start your planning is the Route of Parks website where they highlight suggested trips and detail what each region has to offer. If you do plan a trip, give us a holler. We’d love to know about your experience.