O Circuit: Las Torres Hotel - Campsite Serón

Dogs No Dogs

Features Birding · Commonly Backpacked · River/Creek · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

One-way trail. You need to show reservations for the Macizo circuit campsites at the visitor center (trailhead), see parquetorresdelpaine.cl/es/….

Start at the Las Torres Hotel Visitor Center heading west and turn right to the north at the first bifurcation following the sign to Setor Serón. The trail is well marked and follows mostly north, along the east side of the Macizo Paine. There are quite a few muddy sections along the first two thirds, but most of them have side trails that avoid the wettest parts. While most of the trail is for hiking only, a few sections share the same path with horse trails. These shared sections are marked and when they split up again you should follow the signs to stay on the hiking trail. If you take the horse trail accidentally, don´t worry. Both the horse and hiking trail will eventually lead to the same place, although the horse trails are usually in poor conditions for hiking. At the beginning of the final third of the hike you'll reach the Paine River and hike along its west bank, crossing a few streams. Most of the streams have bridges to get across and the ones that don't are pretty shallow. The trail ends at the Serón Campsite, located at the margins of the Paine River.

Most of the trail goes through old farms, so you'll see a lot of exotic plants such as dandelions, clovers and daisies along the path. The first two thirds go through lenga forests, while the final third is open scrub with calafate and romerillo. Common birds are rufous-collared sparrow, austral thrush, long-tailed meadowlark, chimango caracara and black-chinned siskin.