Traveling to Patagonia National Park, a 650,000-acre expanse in southern Chile, requires a bumpy drive—of up to five hours—along a largely unpaved road from the nearest commercial airport, in Balmaceda. This remoteness makes an adventure here as off-putting as it is attractive.
But now it’s more appealing than ever. After two decades of re-wilding and conservation efforts to mitigate the damage caused by livestock grazing, the area is home to around 3,000 guanacos (a cousin of the llama), 25 adult pumas, 150 Darwin’s rheas (similar to an ostrich), and a small but growing population of endangered guemal deer. Some of them even approach the highway.
