Argentina
Parque Nacional Patagonia
A cattle ranch returned to wilderness where pumas now stalk guanaco herds freely.
Parque Nacional Patagonia in Santa Cruz Province was created from a former sheep estancia — 286,000 hectares of steppe that overgrazing had reduced to near-desert — and in the decade since its establishment, the guanacos have returned, the huemul deer are recovering, and the native coiron grassland is reasserting itself across terrain that the sheep had left bare. The restoration programme, managed by Rewilding Argentina, has documented a 70% increase in large mammal biomass in ten years. The landscape that is returning is what Patagonia looked like before European settlement.
Parque Nacional Patagonia covers 286,000 hectares in the Lago Buenos Aires and Perito Moreno departments of Santa Cruz Province, established in 2014 from former sheep estancias and expanded in 2018. The park is one of the most significant large-scale ecological restoration projects in the Americas — the removal of sheep and fencing, combined with active guanaco and puma management, has produced measurable recovery of the native Patagonian steppe ecosystem within a decade. The South Andean huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus), classified as endangered by the IUCN and present in the park in critically small numbers, is the subject of an active monitoring programme. The park protects a section of the Pinturas River valley south of Cueva de las Manos, extending the rock art site's landscape protection into a broader ecosystem context. The former estancia infrastructure has been converted to visitor facilities without significant architectural modification.
Solo
Parque Nacional Patagonia is where you go to understand what Patagonia is recovering toward — the landscape of returning guanacos, native grasses reasserting over eroded soil, and the slowly rebuilding ecosystem that European sheep ranching spent a century dismantling. The trails through the former estancia lands are uncrowded and the wildlife encounters are genuine.
Couple
The park's combination of restored steppe landscapes, the Río Pinturas canyon, and proximity to Cueva de las Manos makes it the correct complement to the rock art site — two days in this landscape covering both geological deep time (the hand paintings) and ecological recovery time (the guanaco return) produces a complete Patagonian story.
- The park was formed from five estancias purchased by Tompkins Conservation and donated to the Argentine state in 2017.
- Rewilding Argentina has grown the guanaco population to over 5,000 animals in ten years of managed recovery.
- Puma density is among the highest in Patagonia — sightings on main circuits are recorded regularly in the visitor book.
- The Lago Belgrano circuit covers 85km in 3–4 days — no huts, no rescues possible within 24 hours of the interior.
Guanaco charqui and calafate berry jam sustain multi-day treks through rewilded steppe.
Lodge kitchens serve organic lamb from neighbouring estancias with wild herbs foraged on the property.
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