These photos are from the morning of the fourth day, in which we drive – again! – the road from the west end of the park to the east end. then, we make a run for gasoline (all the way back to Natales!) and prepare for a hike.
The Salto Grande waterfall. Why is the photo slightly murky-looking? Because of all the mist flying around in the air. We walked down to an old bridge abutment, and climbed it to take photos directly into the wind for several minutes.
Reverse Martian look at the Cuernos in the morning.
And here we have the Torres del Paine! This is about the clearest they got this day – usually they are shrouded in fog.
Our first photo of the morning. We had originally slept at the west end parking lot, hoping to do a brief hike down to Glaciar Grey, but it was pouring rain and generally miserable, so instead we headed east. This is about 10km down the road, and it’s the first sunlight we get.
It snowed all night on the mountains.
Dan finds a rainbow at a similar place.
The Salto Grande observation bridge.
The kind of picture one gets when he forgets to take the camera out of long-exposure manual settings.
We climb this hill to get a view of the mountains beyond.
The next hill yields an even more impressive view.
Sometimes, but not always, I convert the fisheye back to rectilinear. With this photo, I didn’t.
Layers of clouds coming off the mountains.
Side view of the eastern Cuerno.
We’ve actually exited the park here, after realizing we would not have enough gas to make it to the next station in Argentina unless we tanked up in Natales. Between the two mountains are the Torres, but they are not visible at this time.
All three Torres visible. Barely.
Snow in the pass on the road to Natales.
Older sign on the Bories road.
Black-necked swans in Natales Harbor. How many swans in the picture?
The milodon statue at the Nandu store. this is a tourist-oriented shop in downtown Natales. Well recommended; we stopped in there several times – at the very least, to check email using their WiFi network.
We’re back on the Torres road.
In the foreground, two rheas – large flightless birds, also known as the nandu.
This rhea is a young’un, as evidenced by the fuzzy head.
The Torres are threatening to vanish. (I dropped the color saturation by 75% on this one.)
Will our hike be sunny, or overcast?
And this will be our hike. We park at the Hosteria at lower right, and get to Campamento Torres by evening. Camp out there, and next morning, out to the mirador.
Yes sir, one of these years i am going to visit THIS place. And give it at least a month & NOT ever get bored. Wow. Wonderful fotos ! Thank You
Superb shots Jake, this is the road trip we all want to take. Well done. I love the Torres del Paine with the llamas -four of each! Magnifico!
Thanks for the recent signs too.
Larry