Hiking Lake Esmeralda in the Tierra del Fuego
Summary
At the southernmost tip of the Americas, the Tierra del Fuego is as strange as it is alluring. Mountains and volcanoes surround you as you arrive in Ushuaia, the southern most city on earth, and you find yourself in the centre of a big playground of glacial lakes, channels and echoes of the past culture of the original Fuegian natives. Make sure if you’re in this part of the world to take a day to hike up to see the bright blues of the glacial lake Esmeralda and see the surrounding mountains and landscape of this otherworldly part of the world
highlights
#1 - Seeing the otherworldly blue colours of the glacial Lake Esmeralda
#2 - Hiking the 4 hour round trip hike to the lake and seeing the thunderous mountains surrounding you
#3 - Criss-crossing over the various streams on your way up to the glacial lake
#4 - Spotting some of the wildlife, including the giant Magellanic Woodpecker up in the trees
Travel Tips
- For Lake Esmeralda, its simple to get a taxi from Ushuaia to the starting point of the hike – basically the Parking Laguna Esmeralda on google maps and the taxi driver will know. But you’ll also want to ask if the driver fancies picking you up at the end of the hike as it could be a bit isolating waiting for a taxi / a ride from the Lake back to Ushuaia. Takes around 4 hours for the 10km / 20,000 steps hike. Not overly difficult, but obviously keep an eye on the weather
- As with all things in the Tierra del Fuego, make sure you bring waterproofs and some decent waterproof hiking boots. The peat bogs towards the start mean you’ll likely get sodden feet without them
- Make sure to check out some of the other things to do and general tips by checking out the Trip to the end of the earth, 4 days in the Tierra del Fuego entry
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone