Volcan Puyehue

We did a four day hike from Anticura, Chile around Puyehue Volcano to some remote hot springs and fumaroles.  The first day was steep hiking through dense forest.  We spent a rainy night in the refugio at tree line, which was a small wooden hut with about twenty beds and a tiny smoky wood stove.  We were glad for the shelter and not to pack up a wet tent in the morning!  The second day was misty and rainy and we hiked for several hours across pumice dune fields with no idea of our surroundings.  We paid close attention to the GPS and sometimes took a while to find the next ¨trail¨ marker.

Here is Dan with the GPS in the fog.  Notice the trail sign is on the ground... not very useful.  Plus, this was one of two signs we saw all day.  The post behind was a more typical trail marker.

The weather cleared a bit as we approached the remote hot springs for camp.  Here´s Bets standing in front of a fumarole field.

We set up camp at the hot springs and went for a quick soak.  The hot springs were within a cold river.  That afternoon we continued another 10 km or so to ¨Los Geisers¨, a misnamed field of fumaroles.  The trail crossed the same icy cold river four times, much to Betsy´s dismay.  SO COLD.

Here is Dan standing in front of Los Geisers thermal field.

Another shot of the fumaroles.  You can see all the sulfur and altered rocks beneath the steam.  What a stinky place!

As the clouds passed over, we were happy to see more and more of the beautiful scenery around us.

We awoke the next day to clear skies and hiked back to the refugio.  We walked all day across this vast, open, and desolute landscape of pumice dunes and snow fields.  No shade made for a very hot day in the full sunlight.  We were stunned to find that our enemies from the wetter areas, black biting flies the size of a quarter, could find us even in this landscape!  Terrible creatures.

This is the coolest thing we saw on the hike, a fresh lava flow (the black material that has filled the distant valley).  We were amazed by the abrupt steep front of the flow.

We watched the sun set over Lago Puyehue that evening.  Fortunately dusk brought an end to the biting flies, so Betsy could finally stop hiding in the tent.

The final day we woke early to climb to the top of the volcano.  Here is a distant Volcan Tronador at sunrise.  The valley was cloaked by clouds all day.

Here is Volcan Osorno above the clouds.  We had seen the other side of this volcano from Puerto Varas last week.

Here we are at the top of the volcano, looking back at the recent lava flow.

The crater at the top of the volcano is full of snow.

Volcanos Casablanca and Osorno in the distance.

Here is the volcano we climbed as seen from the bus as we drove away.