Torres del Paine National Park — national park
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Torres del Paine National Park

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

  • Elevation579 m
  • 2 min read
  • 50.983° S 72.966° W

Interesting facts

  • Paine means blue in the language of the Tehuelche people, and the name refers to the colour of the mountains and lakes.
  • The British writer Lady Florence Dixie described the area in an 1880 book, calling the towers Cleopatra's Needles; her party counts as its first foreign tourists.
  • Chris Bonington and Don Whillans made the first ascent of the Central Tower on 16 January 1963; an Italian team reached the top the next day.
  • The North Tower takes its name from Guido Monzino, whose Italian expedition made its first ascent in January 1958.
  • The granite of the massif is a laccolith, a body of magma that cooled underground about 12.5 million years ago and was later exposed by erosion.
  • In 2014 scientists reported fossils of at least 46 nearly complete ichthyosaur skeletons within the park.
  • Grey Glacier is around 15 km long and ends in Lake Grey in two separate arms.
  • The 2011 fire, started by a visitor, burned about 176 square kilometres, including some 36 square kilometres of native forest.
  • The park was created in 1959 as Lago Grey Tourism National Park and received its present name in 1970.
  • In 2022 the massif was named one of the first 100 geological heritage sites of the International Union of Geological Sciences.

Why it is worth it

Torres del Paine takes its name from three granite pillars that rise almost vertically out of the Patagonian steppe: the Torre d'Agostini, the Torre Central and the Torre Monzino, each around 2,500 metres high. They are the most famous view in the park, seen at dawn from the moraine lake at their feet when the first sun turns the rock pink and orange. Beside them stand the Cuernos del Paine, the "horns", whose pale granite bodies are capped with dark sedimentary rock, a two-tone profile that makes them unmistakable from across the lakes. The massif's highest summit, Cerro Paine Grande, reaches 2,884 metres.

The park, established in 1959, covers more than 181,000 hectares between the steppe and the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which blankets much of its western side. Grey Glacier, the largest of several glaciers here, flows down into Lake Grey, and the lakes below the massif, Pehoé, Nordenskjöld, Sarmiento and others, are coloured milky turquoise and blue by fine rock flour suspended in the water. The contrast of granite spires, ice and coloured water under fast-moving Patagonian skies is what makes the landscape so extraordinary; the weather can change several times in an hour, and the wind is legendary.

Wildlife is part of the spectacle. Herds of guanaco graze the open slopes, pumas hunt them; foxes and the endangered huemul deer also live here, and Andean condors ride the updrafts along with more than fifteen other birds of prey. UNESCO named the area a Biosphere Reserve in 1978. The classic ways to see it are on foot: the "W" trek of three to five days along the southern side of the massif, and the full "O" circuit of seven to nine days that also loops around its back. Several fires started by visitors, in 1985, 2005 and 2011, burned large areas of forest and scrub, and their scars are still visible.

Getting there

The park lies in Chilean Patagonia, about 112 km by road north of Puerto Natales and some 312 km from Punta Arenas. Buses run daily from the Puerto Natales terminal to the park entrances such as Laguna Amarga, taking roughly two to three hours. The nearest airport is Teniente Julio Gallardo Airport (PNT) at Puerto Natales, about 82 km in a straight line from the park centre; Punta Arenas has a larger airport with more frequent flights.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Chile 26The Most Beautiful National Parks 61The Most Beautiful Gardens, Parks and Forests 232

From the encyclopaedia

Torres del Paine National Park is a national park encompassing mountains, glaciers, lakes, and rivers in southern Chilean Patagonia. The Cordillera del Paine group of mountains is the park's centerpiece. It lies in a transition area between the Magellanic subpolar forests and the Patagonian Steppes. The park is located 112 km (70 mi) north of Puerto Natales and 312 km (194 mi) north of Punta Arenas. The park borders Bernardo O'Higgins National Park to the west and the Los Glaciares National Park to the north in Argentine territory. It was established as a national park in 1959. Paine means "blue" in the native Tehuelche (Aonikenk) language and is pronounced PIE-neh.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

-50.98306, -72.96639per Wikidata