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Except for the forest of araucaria trees.There's nothing quite like those in Pacific Northwest forests.
We all know what the araucaria is. It's the monkey puzzle tree, which was planted all over Portland following the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition when Chilean fair attendees passed out seedlings.
I had no idea where those trees grew in Chile, until I drove to the timberline of Volcan Llaima. The 10,300-foot high volcano is the main feature of Conguillio National Park, about 40 miles east of the industrial city of Temuco, which is 400 miles south of the capital of Santiago. At 250,000 in population, Temuco is big enough to have a Holiday Inn Express.
Conguillio was made a national park, primarily to preserve the habitat of the araucaria.
These trees grow straight and tall, right to the 6,000-foot timberline, where they are the last tree standing, sometimes 80 to 90 feet tall. A few feet uphill and conditions are so harsh that hardly anything can grow, not even lichen on the pumice slopes. As the trees reach maturity, they lose their lower limbs and the upper limbs spread out like an umbrella. It makes for the prettiest high-mountain forest I have ever seen.
Volcan Llaima has a small ski area, but is mostly a wilderness park. About 20 miles to the north is another volcano, 9,000-foot Lonquimay, which has a modern hotel nestled in the last trees (about a quarter the size of Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood), plus a larger ski area above it than the one on Volcan Llaima. Those Chilean skiers must be tough, because of the four ski areas I visited in summer, not one has a tree on any of the ski runs. Skiing in winter's whiteout conditions must be brutal.
The main feature in summer at Lonquimay is the one-mile hike to see Crater Navidad, from where the volcano's last eruption occurred on Christmas Day in 1988. The park sign said the short hike would take about three hours.
I thought, "three hours for two miles, that's crazy." The sign turned out to be correct. Some how, when you're walking toward the crater, a brisk wind is blowing in your face; and when you are walking away from the crater, a brisk wind is blowing in your face. Besides, there's that 45-degree slope, seemingly straight up, to the lip of the crater.
Just like Chileans skiers, Chilean hikers learn to be tough to enjoy their volcanoes.
-- Terry Richard
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