Argentina Guide
Tierra del Fuego
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
PARQUE NACIONAL TIERRA DEL FUEGO, a mere 12km west of Ushuaia, is the easiest to access of southern Argentina's national parks. Protecting 630 square kilometres of jagged mountains, intricate lakes, southern beech forest, swampy peat bog, sub-antarctic tundra and verdant coastline, the park stretches along the frontier with Chile, from the Beagle Channel to the Sierra Inju-Goiyin (also called the Sierra Beauvoir) north of Lago Fagnano, but only the southernmost quarter of this is open to the public, accessed via RN-3 from Ushuaia. Fortunately, this area contains much of the park's most beautiful scenery, if also some of the wettest – bring rain gear. The quarter is broken down into three main sectors: Bahía Ensenada and Río Pipo in the east, close to the station for the Tren del Fin del Mundo; Lago Roca further west; and the Lapataia area south of Lago Roca, which includes Laguna Verde and, at the end of RN-3, Bahía Lapataia. You can get a good overview of the park in a day, but walkers will want to stay two to three days to appreciate the scenery and the wildlife, which includes birds such as Magellanic Woodpeckers (carpintero patagónico), condors, Steamer Ducks, Kelp Geese – the park's symbol – and Buff-necked Ibises; and mammals such as the guanaco, the rare southern sea otter (nutria marina), the Patagonian grey fox and its larger cousin, the native Fuegian red fox, once heavily hunted for its pelt.
The commonest and cheapest way to access the park is along the good dirt road from Ushuaia. A $20 entrance fee must be paid at the main park gate, payable in addition to any bus, boat or train tickets. Virtually all travel agencies in Ushuaia offer tours of the park ($70, plus entrance fee); most last four hours and stop at the major places of interest, including Bahía Lapataia. Four companies run regular buses (depart daily 8am–7pm, return 9am–8pm), which stop at various points in the park: the entrance or Bahía Ensenada ($10 one way), Lago Roca ($15) and Bahía Lapataia ($20).
There are four main areas for camping in the park: the two nearest the entrance, Río Pipo and Bahía Ensenada, are free, but you're better off heading to Lago Roca and Laguna Verde, in the more exciting western section of the park. Camping Lago Roca sits near picturesque Lago Roca, where it bottlenecks into the Río Lapataia ( 
02901/423409, 
lagoroca@speedy.com.ar; $8–12 per person), and has hot showers and a shop. The free sites further south, on the Archipiélago Comoranes – Camping Las Bandurrias, Camping Laguna Verde and Camping Los Cauquenes – just about edge it for beauty, though.