PARQUE NACIONAL MONTE LEÓN

Recently donated to the APN by the Fundación Vida Silvestre and the Patagonia Land Trust, 60,000-hectare Monte León’s 25-kilometer shoreline and headlands are an ecological wonderland of copious wildlife and uncommon landscapes. Little known and even less visited, this former estancia is only Argentina’s second coastal national park, after Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego (other reserves in Río Negro, Chubut, and Santa Cruz are provincial domains).

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Flora and Fauna
Monte León’s coastline is home to populations of Magellanic penguins, king cormorants, Dominican gulls, and sea lions, while its interior grazes guanacos and rheas and shelters armadillos, among other species. The vegetation is primarily grasses and prostrate shrubs associated with the Patagonian steppe.

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Sights and Activities
Wildlife-watching is, of course, the principal activity. The landscape itself, though, is something special: where the tides meet the headlands, the sea has eroded deep caverns. One of these, La Olla (“the kettle”), is so called because, seen from the steppe above, it has an almost perfectly circular opening (for safety’s sake, do not approach too closely).

The coastline itself differs from the rest of Patagonia in that it abounds with prominent offshore rocks and stacks. Guano collectors worked one of these, Isla Monte León, by stringing a still-existing cable tram from the mainland. Exploring both La Olla and Isla Monte León is possible at low tide, but hikers need to be aware of the tide tables to avoid being stranded—at best.

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Practicalities
At Monte León proper, camping is possible, but there are better accommodations at m Hostería Monte León (RN 3 Km 2385, tel. 011/4621-4780 in Buenos Aires, consultas@monteleon-patagonia.com, US$90/150 s/d with full board), the former estancia’s casco, which also arranges excursions to the shoreline.

For information (especially on the state of the road, which is subject to washouts) ask at Estancia Monte León on the highway (tel. 02962/498184, pnmonteleon@yahoo.com.ar), where there is an APN office.

There is no public transport to Monte León, which is 58 kilometers south of Piedrabuena via paved RN 3 and graveled RP 63, but heavy rains can cause washouts on this route; if this happens, the gate will be locked.