Nahuel Huapi National Park, Bariloche, Argentina

The hike to Otto Meiling
Refugio starts on this dirt road.

View down to Pampa Linda
from near the refugio

One of my favorite places in Argentina was Nahuel Huapi National Park, near Bariloche.  The park is huge and has a number of refuges and even a ski resort.  After busing it everywhere, we rented a car for a few weeks in Bariloche so we could check out some of the lesser traveled spots in the Lakes District of Argentina.  We checked out the far western end of the National Park, which is accessed by heading south from Bariloche on Route 40 to Route 82 along Lago Mascardi, into the valleys below Cerro Tronodor (the biggest mountain in the area).  We camped at a spot called Pampa Linda and then day hiked up to Refugio Otto Meiling, which is on a gorgeous ridge, between two bits of glacier that slide down the valley on either side.  The park folks told us it was not possible to go up there as a day hike but it is.  A long day but totally doable.  The drive to the end of the valley to see the black glacier was pretty nice too.  I wish we'd had time to go to some of the other refugios too but the weather turned and we moved on to lower and warmer locales.

The old refugio

Colors on the way to Meiling Refugio

Glacier Castano Overa

The mountains at the head of the
valley past Pampa Linda

Lago Nahuel Huapi

The head of the valley

For some reason, these guys
loved the taste of our car...

Black Glacier - at the end of
the road past Pampa Linda

The glacier comes down the valley on
either side of  the ridge that
Otto Meiling Refugio sits on.