El Chaltén and Fitzroy

The four-hour one-way car or bus trip to El Chaltén from El Calafate makes staying at least one night here a good idea. The only gas, food, and restroom facilities en route are at La Leona, a historically significant ranch 110 km (68 mi) from El Calafate where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid once hid from the long arm of the law. As you follow the shore of Lago Viedma, look north for the glacier of the same name descending into the lake. Visible for hundreds of miles (weather permitting) on the northern horizon as you approach the frontier village of El Chaltén, the granite hulk of Cerro Fitzroy (11,286 feet and named after the captain of the Beagle, on which Charles Darwin served as a naturalist) rises like a giant arrowhead next to the slender spires of Cerro Torre (10,174 feet). The Tehuelche called Cerro Fitzroy Chaltén ("smoke") for the snow constantly blowing off its peak. The village was founded in 1985 as a hiking mecca at the base of the range.