Argentina Guide
Neuquén and the Lake District
Parque Nacional Los Alerces
Established in 1937, and part of the Pacific watershed, the 2630-square-kilometre PARQUE NACIONAL LOS ALERCES protects some of the most biologically important habitats and scenic landscapes of the central Patagonian cordillera. Its lakes are superb, famous for both their rich colours and their fishing, while most have a backdrop of sumptuous forests that quilt the surrounding mountain slopes. In the northeast of the park these lakes form a network centred on lakes Rivadavia, Menéndez and Futalaufquen, whose waters drain south to the dammed reservoir of Embalse Amutui Quimei, and from here into the Río Futaleufú (also called Río Grande).
Los Alerces doesn't have any mountain peaks of the calibre or altitude of Volcán Lanín or Cerro Tronador in Nahuel Huapi. Nevertheless, some of the two-thousand-metre ranges that divide the park are spectacular, with dramatic rock colorations and cracked and craggy summits such as those that can be seen in the Cordón Situación in the southeast, whose peaks rise to 2300m. Cerro Torrecillas (2253m), in the north of the park, has the only glacier you'll see, but patches of snow can last on the upper peaks into mid-summer. The peaks also seem to act as regular moorings for some remarkable high-altitude cloud formations.