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First of all, just for the avoidance of doubt, although it is situated in the same protected wilderness area as them, this route does not include the actual Siete Tazas waterfalls, which are accessed by way of a short boardwalk located further down the hill, in other words not as far up the road from Radal. The first half or so of the Laguna de las Ánimas route simply consists of hiking up the trail to [[Refugio_El_Bolsón_(english)|Refugio El Bolsón]], which is a very popular standalone trek in its own right and takes four hours, one way. The hike to Laguna de las Ánimas is therefore the "complete" trek for the national park, whereby you cross from one end of it to the other (and then back again). The upper part of the trek is located around the head of the valley of the Río Claro -- the Siete Tazas river. Don't get confused by the nomenclature. In reality, Laguna de las Ánimas itself is a small mountain lake, situated just outside the park boundary.
The starting point of this trail is the CONAF rangers' office at Parque Inglés (km 0 of the trek - 1100m above sea level)which is where the access road into the national park ends, and where people have to park their vehicles if they wish to proceed any further. You'll need to sign in at the CONAF rangers' office on the left-hand side of the road. Start the walk by passing around the back of the CONAF base complex through a turnstile following the signs to the trails. After you get out of the CONAF basecomplex, you need to turn right onto a dirt road which then bears around to the left. Within 150 m from the CONAF base areafurther on, you will see a path, which exits the dirt road to the right, along with a route sign pointing towards in the direction of Refugio El Bolsón, and that it's four hours' walk away. This is the trail you want to take. You have to keep following it until you get to Refugio El Bolsón, ignoring all of the secondary paths that you'll see branching off to the sides of the main route as you go along (most notably, Sendero Mala Cara and Sendero La Montañita). Try not to forget this! 🙂 On the way, you'll see signs saying "3 hours to go", "2 hours to go" and "1 hour to go" in Spanish -- see the second photo in the column of images to the right of this text -- which will give you some idea of how close you are to your destination. Obviously, the time periods that appear on these signs are only rough estimates but they should be reasonably accurate for a person walking at a normal pace. Most of the signs along the route to Refugio El Bolsón are clearly marked and there aren't very many places where you can expect to get lost easily.
The opening section of the route is very pleasant. It passes through dense forest and has a relatively flat gradient. After about 20 minutes of walking, you'll get to a small clearing (km 2.4 - 1212m). A few steps further on is a small stream, which gets dried up by the middle of summer. You'll then pass a quincho [= a simple, local wooden gazebo] and a wooden sign with a map on it just ahead of it, in the same clearing. You'll also go past the entrance to Sendero Mala Cara less than 10 minutes later. In km 3.7 of the walk (altitude 1282m), you reach a fork in the trail . You need to take the right fork in order to keep heading towards Refugio El Bolsón instead off veering off left to Sendero Montañita. There are signposts there to help you out. 330 metres further along, you have to cross another stream.You then have to keep following the trail as it winds its way uphill, through the southern beech forest. After another hour's walk, the scenery begins to change. The vegetation thins out considerably and turns into scrubland.
