Laguna del Alto (english)

En vehículo propio

Desde Talca se debe tomar la ruta 115 en dirección a San Clemente, pueblo que se rodear por el bypass. Son 40 kilómetros desde Talca hasta el desvío a Vilches, que nace hacia la izquierda bien señalizado, por pavimento en buen estado. Desde este cruce, son 29 kilómetros más pavimentados, hasta llegar al poblado de Vilches. Un portón de madera que cierra el camino indica el inicio de la Reserva.

Acceso en transporte público y autostop

Salen buses hasta Vilches desde el terminal de Talca, ubicado frente al terminal de Tur Bus con los siguientes horarios:

El precio es de CLP$1600 (US$ 1.7 as of November 2024) por cada viaje, y toma cerca de dos horas para subir hasta Vilches (bastante menos para bajar) dependiendo de cuánta gente y carga lleve. Se recomienda confirmar el horario de los buses con la asociación de buses rurales (Tel. +56712243366), o con la estación de buses de Talca (+56712203992)

The best season of the year is between October and April, depending on the first snows of the year.

Route 1: Via Conaf: It starts in the zone called "El Hotel" (The Hotel), and old military hotel abandoned some years ago. From there, you walk till the entrance of the Conaf National Park. After you register yourself, you follow the trail bordering the north edge of the Paine Hill, there is to cross some small rivers and after 3 hours walking you arrive to a nice camping place near the bifurcation to "Valle del Indio". Here you start walking up through a forest (watch out with the roots) and after 1.30 hours you should start leaving behind the forest. From here you should be able to see the "Piedra del Conejo" (Rabbit Stone), which is a signal that you are near Enladrillado. 1.30 hours more and you should arrive to the Enladrillado Bifurcation. If you feel like it, you can walk there, it's really near there (no more than 300m from here). Then the trail leads west, and in 1.15 hours more you arrive to "Laguna del Alto".

Route 2: Via "Piedras Blancas". This route is harder, but also prettier, because you must walk some metres over the forest line, that gives you beatiful sights of the Maule valley and the forest on it. Before arriving to Conaf, you should take the right trail, passing by a secondary conaf's house. You have to follow this trail, till you arrive to "Piedras Tacitas", from here you have to take east, going through the forest. In this trail you will see "Piedra del Mono" (Monkey Stone). After some house walkin, the trail takes the east edge of the Peine Hill, and starts going up slightly dangerous. You will arrive to a place called "Piedras Blancas" (White Stones) that you can see from below too. Then you have to go through Peine's Portezuelo so you can have a wonderful sight of the Laguna del Alto. Now you have only 1.30 hours left walking to arrive to the lagoon.

Estimated Time

Rout 1: Normal pace, this route should take from 6 to 8 hours. You can also camp in the "valle del venado" bifurcation.

Ruta 2: Slow pace, should take from 8 to 10 hours.

Do not camp in "Laguna del Alto", it's forbidden, and human waste could damage the water of the lagoon.

IMPORTANTE: Es muy aconsejable obtener las entradas antes de llegar en pasesparques.cl/, la web oficial de boletos para áreas protegidas de CONAF.

NACIONALES

• NIÑOS/AS (<12 AÑOS), ADULTO MAYOR Y PERSONAS CON DISCAPACIDAD: $ 0
• JOVENES NACIONAL (ENTRE 13 Y 17 AÑOS): $ 2.500
• ADULTO NACIONAL +18 AÑOS: $ 4.000

EXTRANJEROS

• NIÑOS/AS (<12 AÑOS) Y PERSONAS CON DISCAPACIDAD: $ 0
• JOVENES EXTRANJEROS (+13 Y -17 AÑOS) Y ADULTO MAYOR (+60 AÑOS): CLP$4500 (US$ 4.7 as of November 2024)
• ADULTO EXTRANJERO +18 AÑOS: CLP$8500 (US$ 8.8 as of November 2024)