This was a nice, little day outing, nothing spectacular, but pleasant and very doable, even if you are not in great shape. Be sure to drive to the top of Volcano Osorno for a great view over the lake.
After visiting Lago Todos Los Santos (booked as a day excursion from our cruise ship) , we then visited this National Park. While riding our tour bus from Puerto Montt to these 2 attractions, I kept seeing the Volcan Osorno from my window at this bus. I said silently to myself, " wow, wow, wow!" as I snapped several pictures of this volcano. Parque Nacional V. P. Rosales is big National Park. From the signs at its entrance, it seemed that there are more attractions that one can see at this Park. See attached pictures. We focused our visit on the waterfalls or the "saltos". Our tour guide kept reminding us to stay on the left side of the trail and not to go astray.There are restrooms near the park entrance and a gift shop where one can buy some souvenirs and refreshments. How I wished we had more time to spend in the Park and explore its other areas!
A great hike - strenuous and beautiful. There is one main trail (i don't think there are options). It's basically in the shape of a P. It's 12km long and takes about 5 hours return. You start at the bottom of the P... hike to the middle of it (all under the sight of the Volcano Osorno which is gorgeous). The first part of the hike is desolate. And the hike is appropriately called desolation! Remember this is all at the base of a volcano. When you get to the P you keep going straight where you are going to make your loop (up the straight part of the P). Then you turn right and down to the lake - where eventually you make your way to a hidden lake) to rest. It's quiet and gorgeous. Lovely! Then of course you can either walk back around or if you prefer (and it's summer) walk the beach back (which is not part of the P) but would look more like an upside down U if you were hiking it.Now, two tips. And these are IMPORTANT!1- there is free parking right behind the paid parking lot. Don't waste 5,000 pesos paying for paid parking.2- and most most most importantly - bring a hat or a fly swatter or something that you can use to bat away the terribly large and annoying flies that exist in this park. If you hit them they actually leave you - but if you don't they will stay with you the whole hike. I got good at batting them away so wasn't overly annoyed once I figured out the secret. The secret is to stop once a fly circles you. Just wait and you'll see the pattern he flies in around and around you. Then bat him away with your hat/swatter. When you do - he leaves. I saw others who didn't know how to get rid of them and they were sooo upset. I mean one guy was screaming get them away from me! It was quite funny. But after 5 hours of them... it does get rather annoying.
Great place to explore on foot. Miles of trails, very scenic, full of fauna, flora and beautiful sights. A most see for anyone visiting Puerto Montt.
The Saltos de Petrohue were ok, but I'm not so keen on those kind of places where you have hundreds of tourists taking turns to take photos from a fenced off area. I understand that this prevents accidents and further damage to the beauty spot, but still - meh.However, the Lago Todos los Santos is so beautiful and there are several other places where you can stop by the river and watch the rapids slow down. We found one area called La Maquina which was particularly pretty.I was astonished, however, to note the amount of litter that had been dropped there. Shameless!
Beautiful and peaceful, nature at its best. Surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains, this park provides a tranquil getaway at the crossroads between Argentina and Chile.
The Petrohue waterfall is really a beautiful place! You should definitely visit those falls! From the waterfall you will also have a great view of the amazing osorno Volcano!
Great attractions such as the Osorno Vulcan, The Petrohue river and its falls Todos los Santos lake and so on.
We were here in springtime...the hikes were quiet and pleasant and the waterfalls were a color of ice blue hard to explain, magnificent!
This is Chile's oldest national park. It was founded in 1926 and covers 1000 square miles of volcanic sculpted land and includes iconic Osorno Volcano, a perfectly conical peak that some have compared to Mt Fuji in Japan and whose eruption Charles Darwin saw from his ship in 1835. Petrohue Waterfalls , which many international travelers stop to see on their way to Argentina, is a chute-type waterfall on the upper Petrohué River in Chile. It is a short distance downstream from the river source in Todos los Santos Lake, so named by the Jesuits who crossed the lake seeking safe passage into Argentina in the 17th century. The falls themselves were formed about 600 years ago by volcanic eruptions; how the turquoise colored water falls powerfully pour over the black volcanic rocks is beautiful. Petrohue Waterfalls has a new, log designed tourist center. The center has a very nice gift shop. The buyer for the gift shop has a great sense of design that is reflected in the very nice wares they sell. Unfortunately, since may tour groups stop here on their way to the lake district ferry crossing, sometimes one has less time here than one might want. The toilet facilities are not as new but they are clean and there are a lot of them, even on the women’s side. This is often not the case in South America where men may have several urinals and toilets but the women’s side may have only one or two toilets, even in places frequented by large tours.