Fitz Roy Cascades

Patagonia / Los Glaciares National Park, Santa Cruz, Argentina

About Fitz Roy Cascades


Hiking Distance: 23km round trip
Suggested Time: 8-10 hours

Date first visited: 2007-12-22
Date last visited: 2007-12-22

Waterfall Latitude: -49.27782
Waterfall Longitude: -72.98577

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

The Fitz Roy Cascades are what I’m calling these series of mountain cascades sprinkled beneath the imposing Fitz Roy Mountains.

During our visit, there were actually countless lacy mountain cascades like these, but this page was really my excuse to include the impressive mountain scenery that was the real draw of the difficult 8- to 10-hour Laguna de Los Tres hike.

Laguna_de_los_Tres_192_12222007 - Some of the cascades tumbling beneath the glaciers across Laguna de los Tres
Some of the cascades tumbling beneath the glaciers across Laguna de los Tres

Therefore, these cascades merely played more of a secondary role as a side attraction.

The cascades that I’ve featured on this page were directly fed by snow and glacier melt and hence would have their flow vary depending on the degree of such melt.

Since we showed up in late December 2007, we suspected that the flows here were probably at their best as it was right at the start of the Patagonian Summer.

In any case, the Sendero Laguna de Los Tres (Lagoon of the 3 Trail) was intended to get close to the Fitz Roy peaks of Cerro Fitz Roy, Cerro Poincenot, and others.

Laguna_de_los_Tres_224_12222007 - Really, the Fitz Roy Cascades were merely a reason to discuss the scenic Laguna de los Tres hike to get right into the Fitz Roy Massif
Really, the Fitz Roy Cascades were merely a reason to discuss the scenic Laguna de los Tres hike to get right into the Fitz Roy Massif

All of them were fronted by a glacial lagoon.

The epic Laguna de Los Tres hike began from the town of El Chalten.

Since we stayed in the town, we didn’t need to do any additional driving to get to the trailhead as we merely walked across town to its edges to get started.

Authorities

The Fitz Roy Cascades reside in Los Glaciares National Park near El Chaltén in Patagonian Argentina. For information or inquiries about the general area as well as current conditions, the closest authoritative source of information that I could find was at Los Glaciares National Park website.

Laguna_de_los_Tres_002_12222007 - At the trailhead just was we were walking from town
Laguna_de_los_Tres_005_12222007 - The trail began with a pretty relentless ascent
Laguna_de_los_Tres_008_12222007 - Looking down the valley we were at yesterday when we drove towards Chorrillo del Salto
Fitz_Roy_013_12232007 - View of the Fitz Roy Massif from the lookout point after the initial ascent at the trailhead
Laguna_de_los_Tres_067_12222007 - Julie continuing on the trail as she approached the mountains
Laguna_de_los_Tres_083_12222007 - Julie approaching the Fitz Roy Massif, which was looming in the distance.  Notice the impressive glacier towards the right side of this photo
Laguna_de_los_Tres_107_12222007 - We saw this woodpecker pecking away at the tree trunk while hiking the trail
Laguna_de_los_Tres_111_12222007 - The trail was flat along this stretch before the final grueling climb up to the glacial lagoon
Laguna_de_los_Tres_143_12222007 - The start of the last climb up to the lagoon
Laguna_de_los_Tres_153_12222007 - A group of people about to pass us as we struggled on this steep climb
Laguna_de_los_Tres_156_12222007 - Almost there
Laguna_de_los_Tres_192_12222007 - A pair of thin cascades draining some glacier and snowmelt before ultimately draining into the lagoon
Laguna_de_los_Tres_197_12222007 - Another one of the Fitz Roy Cascades near Laguna de Los Tres
Laguna_de_los_Tres_253_12222007 - Julie making the steep descent as we headed back to town
Fitz_Roy_041_jx_12222007 - Finally returning to town


I don’t recall the exact route we took to get to the car park for the trailhead for Sendero Laguna de Los Tres.

All I recalled was that it was towards the western end of town, and since El Chaltén was quite a small town, it wasn’t difficult to find the trailhead.

If you don’t find my vague directions helpful, I’m sure you can ask anyone in town (like the hotel receptionist or something) and they’ll point you in the right direction.

For geographical context, El Chaltén was about 213km (nearly 3.5 hours drive) north of El Calafate. El Calafate was a 3.5-hour flight from Buenos Aires.

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Tagged with: fitz roy, el chalten, patagonia, los glaciares, el calafate, laguna de los tres, hike, argentina, waterfall, santa cruz



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Johnny Cheng

About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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