After leaving Futaleufu, we drove back down the long dirt road, back to the Carretera Austral. We stopped again on our drive at Yelcho Lake, as it was a lovely sunny day, and the water was lovely and clear.
Our next stop on the journey is Queulat National Park, but we stopped one night at a river on the way. We're learning we like the cadence of driving a couple of hours each day, as opposed to a long drive every couple of days, as a lot of hours on gravel roads is jarring to all involved. And it's so easy to pack up and go in the vans, it's not a huge inconvenience to move along a night or two at a time. So this campsite was just a dirt road next to a river. There were several local families that showed up to enjoy the little beach with their kids, so the boys got to play with them, which is always fun to see.
On the road again! The drive to Queulat was really lovely. Lots of snow capped peaks.
Our next camping stop was actually within the National park itself, which is a tad expensive because you have to pay the National Park fees on top of the campsite fees. But it was a very nice campsite. You're right next to the famous hanging glacier, which is the whole point of being there in the first place, and the campsites themselves are nice and spread out with pavilions and a water source for each one.
This is the actual Queulat hanging glacier. Unfortunately the longer, harder hike that gets you right next to the glacier was closed for maintenance, but you can still do a short nature walk and see it really well. The glacier used to extend all the way down into the valley, but due to global warming, it has retreated to its current location and now there is a waterfall that drops into the valley where the glacier once was.
The runoff from that waterfall makes this huge, roaring river that is aqua teal blue and super fast. We got to walk over that on a fun cable bridge.
In the previous town, I had found a bottle of Sav. Blanc made from this exact area with a perfect drawing of the glacier, so I had to try it here! It was delicious.
After Queulat, we were heading to Coyhaique for our next Airbnb to cook and restock. Right after we left Queulat Campground, there is a spot along Highway 7 where there is a natural hot spring, but only at low tide. We timed it just right and found the spot using iOverlander. There it was, tucked amongst the rocks next to an inlet. It's a nice setup because when you get too hot, you can hop out and go into the inlet water to cool off. We even saw an otter swimming over there!
After the hot springs, we continued on our drive for the day. That included going over the substantial Queulat mountain pass. The side we were going up was entirely gravel with lots of switch backs, and it was very dusty, so it wasn't the easiest bit of driving. Going down the other side was paved. I believe they had plans to pave the other side of the pass, but it will be years and years before it's done. The views though, coming down the pass, were incredible, some of the best we've seen so far. None of these car pics do it justice.
We weren't due into Coyhaique until the following day, so we wild camped one night in a valley on the other side of the pass. It turned out to be the perfect little spot. It was a hot day, so luckily we found some nice big trees that offered shade. And it had a little creek running by it that the boys played in for hours. Another local family with kids showed up there too, so they worked together to build a dam across the entire creek. They actually designed it like a spa almost, with walking sections and cold plunge sections for Drew jajaja. We nicknamed the mountain in the background the Matterhorn.
Last sightseeing spot on the drive into Coyhaique was a lovely waterfall. There have been so many waterfalls along our journey, that at some point we stopped calling them out to the boys while we drove, because they'd likely see the next one. But this one was particularly impressive. And you could theoretically get in at the bottom and swim, so it would be a nice spot for a day trip, but we needed to continue on.
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