Onelli Information Center is located 10 km from the entrance to Perito Moreno National Park. Information Office and Visitor Center “Ceferino FONZO”. Admission is free. All visitors must register in the visitor center from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Entrance is not allowed outside of the established hours.
The National Park is open to the general public from October 1st to May 1st.
In its 126,830 hectares, the Perito Moreno National Park preserves representative samples of the Patagonian Steppe and Patagonian Forests ecoregions.
The greatest representation in the forest is given by the lenga, in its various growth forms which change along the altitudinal gradient. The guindo (Magellan’s beech) is also present in low number, being its northern limit of distribution. It usually appears associated with canelo (winter’s bark) or with notro (Chilean firebush). The ñire can adapt to a wide variety of environments, but its presence in wetlands make up fragile ecosystems of high conservation value.
The vegetation of the steppe is characterized by grasses and stubby bushes, adapted to conditions of low humidity, low temperatures, frosts, and strong winds. Some cushion-shaped, others spiny, with tiny leaves or leafless. To a lesser extent, there are xerophilous grasses such as coirones and communities adapted to soil characteristics, such as wetlands, low brackish areas and river terraces.
The flora of the high Andean zone complements the great diversity of species present in this protected area.
The presence of the Magellanic tuco-tuco and the orange chinchillón (southern viscacha) stand out, as they are endemic species of Southern Patagonia.
No less important, also present in these environments are the red fox, the gray fox, the puma, the Geoffroy’s cat, the pampas cat, the lesser grison, the Patagonian skunk and Patagonian pichi (dwarf armadillo).
The two main herbivores are the guanaco and the huemul deer, the latter designated a Natural Monument due to its status as an endangered species. They are key to shaping the plant communities of the Protected Area. Both are the largest species and constitute the natural prey for the puma.
If you see a huemul deer, it is especially important to inform the park rangers.
To learn about the history of the region associated with livestock activity during the mid-twentieth century, you can visit the El Rincón museum 16 km from the Guardaparque Ceferino Fonzo information office. Through the original construction and historic elements of the daily life of the ranch and related posts, visitors can step back in time to the early ranching days of the park.
Certain points of the landscape such as caves were used as shelters or points of observation and monitoring of hunting prey and today they show the diverse ways of life of the groups that occupied these spaces, some documented by rock art.
A tour of the trail “A Landscape with History”, near the Visitor Center “Ceferino Fonzo” offers the visitor an account of those times of occupation of this territory.
In the event of a discovery of an archaeological piece, please notify the Park Ranger immediately, without removing or lifting it from its site. Its exact location is valuable for present or future scientific investigations.
The largest faunal cast in Perito Moreno National Park is made of birds, with 120 registered species.
Wetlands and water bodies provide food, shelter, and nesting material for an important group of birds, including ducks, gulls, plovers, shorebirds, herons, divers, and macaws, among others.
Of the emblematic species, the Torrent Duck stands out, a species adapted to torrential mountain rivers whose numbers are notably decreasing in northern Patagonia, the endemic ashy plover in the region, and the occasional records of endemic Hooded grebe in the province of Santa Cruz. These last species are in critical danger of extinction.
The Darwin’s rhea populates the steppe and, among the coirones (steppe grasses), it breeds four species of seedsnipes or partridged plovers. The mountains and cliffs of the protected area are used as nesting sites and roosting places for various species, among which the condor, the black-chested buzzard-eagle, the white matamico (white-throated caracara) and the ñacurutú (great horned owl) stand out.
The Perito Moreno National Park and the San Lorenzo Provincial Reserve have been declared by BirdLife International -through Aves Argentinas- as an Important Area for the Conservation of Birds (AICA).
The hut to hut trekking network of Perito Francisco Pascasio Moreno National Park is the result of collaboration between the National Park Administration and not-for-profit conservation organizations, Banco de Bosques and the Butler Conservation Fund, whose shared vision was to develop infrastructure for low impact visitation to one of the most diverse, well-preserved, and least visited parks in Patagonia. The project visionaries believed that carefully managed outdoor recreation in the Park would build appreciation and support for conserved lands of exceptional beauty and would have a positive impact on society, both local visitors and tourists from abroad.
Beginning in 2016, the project assembled a diverse team of trail experts, ecologists and botanists, mountain guides, builders and park rangers to design, construct and manage the ninety-kilometer trekking network. The team branded the trekking network Lagos Escondidos to highlight the eight lakes hidden among the mountains of the park and to help distinguish ‘Perito Moreno National Park’ from the Perito Moreno glacier, a prominent destination in Los Glaciares National Park 560 kilometers to the south.
During the following three summers, the team constructed ninety kilometers of sustainable hiking trails in three major areas, Peninsula Belgrano, the Lacteo Valley, and the Azara sector. The team built these trails to the highest standards to ensure longevity, to avoid impacts to fragile plant communities and to bring visitors to beautiful overlooks and sheltered spots within the windy park. They constructed ten back country huts with adjacent tent sites and two back country campsites with dry latrines at key locations along the trail network. The limited capacity of the huts and tent sites would ensure that visitor numbers would be limited and that visitors would always have the wilderness experience that is characteristic of Perito F. P. Moreno National Park.
The hut to hut trekking system exists today thanks to the vision and hard work of many people and institutions. Among them, the Butler Conservation Fund and founder Gilbert Butler, the National Parks Administration including the board, senior officials, technical delegation and devoted superintendents and rangers, Fundación Banco de Bosques, Bunker Construcciones, and members of the Professional Trail Builders Association, and over one hundred individuals from Bariloche, Gobernador Gregores, Calafate and el Chalten.
