La Leona Petrified Forest

DURATION
From 9 to 16.30

OPERATES
Daily from October 1st to April 30th
Tour to be done due to weather conditions

PHYSICAL DEMAND
Medium

3 Hours walking tour

MINIMUM AGE
Activity to be carried out from the age of 6 years old

SPECIAL DISCOUNT
Children from 6 to 11 years old have a special discount

MEAL
Box Lunch

INCLUDES
Insurance during the tour – Access to the paleontological site

IT DOESN´T INCLUDE
Snack in La Leona parador

The Schedule won´t change independently the tour begins and finishes in El Chaltén, El Calafate or El Calafate Airport

It’s a full-day hike in the steppe area. It is suitable for all the travellers who love outdoor and adventurous activities, willing to discover new places. It requires an average physical fitness as the tour provides about 3 hours of non-stop walking on uneven terrain. It starts from El Calafate, covering 33 km along the provincial road N. 5 to the east, and then 67 km to the north along the Ruta Nacional n. 40. On the way you can see the Argentino lake, the Santa Cruz river, the La Leona river with its beautiful valley, with panoramic views of the Andes, including Mount Fitz Roy.

The tour begins in Calafate with a minibus transfer to La Leona Hotel, located next to the river. We will do a short stop at that point and then continue another 10 kilometers towards the west following the South margin of the lake until getting, around midday, to the slope of Cerro Los Hornos, in Estancia Santa Teresita.

Here we will discover a huge depression of the terrain where the petrified trunks are and here will begin the exploration walk among the fossils.

During the walk we will see a great quantity of petrified trunks lying on the surface, about 70 million years old, some of them with a diameter of 1,20 metres. These remains are testimony of ancient times where the climate was very different now and allowed plentiful and large flora.

Sometimes fossils remains of different dinosaurs are discovered. During the tour we will have time for lunch. Cerro Los Hornos protects this place from the wind and is also a natural depression of the land. Because of being in the steppe, weather conditions are not very pleasant and it´s dry. At 2 o´clock we start our return to La Leona Hotel where we will have the possibility to have a snack and then continue to El Calafate, El Chaltén or El Calafate Airport where we will arrive approximately at 16.30.

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