Parque Nacional Patagonia

Parque Nacional Patagonia was assembled from former sheep estancias — steppe that a century of overgrazing had pushed toward desert — and in the years since, the guanacos have returned, the endangered huemul is monitored back from the brink, and native coirón grassland reasserts itself over bared soil. What is returning is what Patagonia looked like before European sheep.

The park spreads across basalt tablelands, steppe lakes and the upper Pinturas River basin in northwest Santa Cruz, established in 2014 and grown since — one of the most significant ecological restorations in the Americas, its purchased estancias donated to the state and their buildings converted to visitor facilities with little change. Marked day walks and longer circuits run from the La Ascensión sector under official park guidance, with supplies carried from the nearest service town, water topped up only at the information-centre shop, and the published picnic ground at Caburé the one concession to comfort. The conservation story enriches every trail without promising anything: no puma, huemul or guanaco owes an appearance, and the landscape — shaped as much by geology as by restoration — carries the day regardless. Downstream, the basin runs toward Cueva de las Manos, tying ecological recovery to human deep time.