After our long bus ride south from northern Chile and a quick pitstop in Santiago, we’ve spent the last several days in and around Las Trancas, a sleepy mountain town set in a gorgeous forested valley below two volcanoes. Las Trancas is situated down valley from the famous Termas de Chillán hot springs and ski resort; however, we bypassed the commercial hot springs in favor of a backpacking trek to some remote hot springs on the other side of the mountains.
After hiking through the forest we were surprised to see how much snow is still in the mountains! Apparently they had an epic winter here. We donned our crampons and headed over a high pass.
Here’s the view from near the pass, looking down into Valle de Aguas Calientes. (Photo taken on the way out). Though we knew by then to expect lots of snow, we were still a bit shocked to see the total snowpack coverage in the valley, and started to prepare mentally for a couple uncomfortable nights of camping on snow. The rivers you see down in there are all hot spring rivers, so at least we wouldn’t freeze to death!
A hot spring river cuts through the snowpack, showing how big of a winter it has been.
Very fortunately, after a bit of exploring we found a meadow where a series of hot spring creeks had melted the snowpack off! This lifted our spirits big time, as it meant that we wouldn’t have to camp on the snow after all. It was pretty funny to be camping on dry green grass, totally surrounded by snow! You can see our little gray tent in the middle of the photo.
It doesn’t get much better than this!!! The river behind Claudia was actually scalding hot, but this joining river was the perfect temperature for a soak… along with a tasty Chilean wine of course.
The obligatory nighttime tent shot.
After two days of soaking in the hot springs and generally chilling out, we headed back over the mountains to Las Trancas, for more adventures!
I’ve got a really similar wilderness hot springs with wineglass photo from my honeymoon: good times!
Nice… I wish all backpacking trips involved wild hot springs!
You gotta spend more time in Idaho!
Ultimate jacuzzi!
One word is enough to describe the above:
Awesome!
You have a good lifestyle mate!
Hey Jack and Claudi!!!
These fotos are so beuatiful and I know I have to travel one time more in Latinoamerica! And Jack, you know that you have the best partner for traveling in the world???!!!I miss her!
Abrazos fuertes a ustedes, buen viaje
Now you are one of my favorite photographer, I really enjoy to see my country through your photos! Thanks for share them =)
Hi Jack
Wow amazing pictures!!
I came accross your website looking for infos on the Dientes circuit(that we just did, amazing!!)
This trek look awesome too and since we’re heading up north…, but i cant find it anywhere, let alone any information on it. Is it in the lonely planet Trekking in Patagonia? If you can help me, i’d really appreciate!!
Thx , Dan
Hi Dan,
We learned of this trek from one of Franz’s trekking guidebooks; I think they’re out of print, but you can find info on his website here: http://www.trekkingchile.com/indexEN.html
This post inspired us to do this trek – it is unbelievable. We have done a few hot spring treks in British Columbia, Canada and we loved this one.
There is a very good route description here for those interested: http://www.wikiexplora.com/index.php/Valle_de_Aguas_Calientes_(english)
And a link to our experience here: http://www.ohtheplaceswevebeen.ca/2013/04/chilean-hot-springs-dreams-valle-de.html
Big THANK YOU for sharing 🙂
Laura & Brendan