Sector Quetrupillán

About midway between Volcán Villarrica [1] and Volcán Quetrupillán, a rough summer-only road crosses the park from Termas de Palguín [2] to the hot-springs town of Coñaripe [3]. Best suited to four-wheel-drive or at least high-clearance vehicles, though some daring (or foolhardy) Chileans attempt it with ordinary passenger cars, it passes through a scenic araucaria forest that includes the park’s only campground.

From Volcán Villarrica [1]’s southern slopes, hiking trails cross the park to Termas de Palguín and continue to Puesco, where Buses Jac has a daily bus back to Pucón [4]. For more detail on this hike, which has some hard-to-follow sections, see Tim Burford’s Chile and Argentina: The Bradt Trekking Guide (Bradt, 2001) or Clem Lindenmayer’s Trekking in the Patagonian Andes (Lonely Planet, 2003). Conaf now levies a US$5.50 for hikers on this trail.