Lago Puelo National Park

Information

It is a national park in the northwest of the province of Chubut, in Argentinean Patagonia. It has an area of 27674 hectares.

It has a main access at the end of Provincial Route 16, about 3 kilometres from the town of Lago Puelo and 15 kilometres from the town of El Bolsón (in the province of Río Negro). After entering the protected area, a little further on there is a car park, information office and restrooms. If you go on for about 850 metres more you will reach the lake with the same name as the park (Lago Puelo), where there is a small harbour and nautical excursions are offered. In this area the beaches are wide, with clear water and an ideal landscape for photographic shots. It is normal that this part is very crowded during the high season.

From the port, if you walk along the beach in a westerly direction for about 800 metres, you will reach the mouth of the Azul River. All along the way the landscape is wild and there are shady places to stop and rest.

And if you head east from the harbour, you will come to another car park (this place can be reached directly by a secondary road from the information office). From this place there are trails, one of which leads to another more remote and isolated beach called La Playita. It is worth mentioning that in order to do the medium and high difficulty trails it is necessary to register at the park ranger's office.

On the other hand, there is another access to the park called El Desemboque, through a totally different sector. To get there you have to go to the El Hoyo village and 1 km away from there take a dirt and gravel road (you have to drive slowly because there may be pits and loose stones). After about 12 km there is a fork in the road, where the main road leads to a private camping site and the one on the left leads to a public beach. The shore of this sector is on Lake Puelo.

Regarding when to go to the national park, the most recommendable season is from December to March. On the other hand, in the middle of the year, the winter there tends to have very low temperatures, which makes it difficult or impossible to do many activities.