Laguna san Rafael glacier national park trekking - Patagonia Chile Infinito Sur expeditions

Laguna San Rafael National Park

The best and most worldwide known destination in Aysén is perhaps the Glacier San Rafael and the Laguna of the same name.
The Laguna and the glacier are part of the Laguna San Rafael National Park, created June 17th, 1959, with a surface of 6729 sq.miles. The park includes the whole area of the Northern Ice Field which has a length of approximately 112 miles from north to south and a width of about 37 miles, that is from 46°40' to 48°20' latitude south and from 74°to 73°40' longitude west.
Within the park is the highest summit of the Austral Andes: the San Valentin Mount with a height of 13.280 ft above sea level and 19 main glaciers which are sources to many streams and rivers, being the most important the Ventisqueros, Colonia, Nef, Soler, Leones and Exploradores, adding up to more than 250 lakes.
One of the most beautiful glacier of the park is the San Rafael, which flows down, as a frozen river, from the high peaks toward the west. The San Rafael reaches the sea at a small lake (Laguna San Rafael) with many floating icebergs that have come out of the wall of the glacier with loud explosions; these icebergs resemble ice sculptures with capricious shapes. The wall is of a crystalline blue with shades changing according to the day light and a deep green forest surrounds the glacier in its whole length, shaping in this way a landscape which has been the wonder of many of today visitors and also of the Indians and Europeans sailors that in the past have reached this coast.