After visiting the stunning Tantauco Park, I’m sure you will not have had enough, and that’s good because what awaits you in the center of Chiloé is equally remarkable and unique.
Tepuheico is only 90 minutes in a direct vehicle from the northern access point of Tantauco. But as this is a private reserve, they are more particular about the way you arrive, which ends up not being the shortest route. You have to pay your entrance fee online in advance, and then bring the ticket with you to one of the official park entrances where they will be waiting for you. You can also reserve lodging in the park, but that’s optional. I’ll talk through the details of getting there more in the Travel Strategy and Transportation section.
This is also about half the size of Tantauco, so it’s easier to move around and within it, but you balance that out with its greater isolation and there’s a whole mountain range running right through the middle, a huge lake guarding its eastern edge, and the Pacific Ocean on the western side. This intensity of topographical change and diversity of landscape features in a relatively small space makes it exquisitely delightful to hike through.
It’s also more conveniently closer to the more urbanized centers of Chiloé like Castro and Chonchi, so it’s all the more possible to visit Tepuhueico as a day trip while staying in one of those towns.
If you haven’t yet read up on some of the foundations of the entire fifteen-park route, go back and check out my overview post so you can get oriented.
Castro has its own regional airfield, but you won’t be able to get directly to it from an international airport. You would have to first fly to Puerto Montt, then from that airport inquire about local flights to Castro.
I would not recommend this, however, as you’ll spend more time looking for a local flight and waiting for it than by just getting to Castro on a bus. It’s not that far away.
In Puerto Montt, you can also reserve airport transfers to pick you up and take you to your hotel or to the bus station, or take you all the way to Castro.
Like its southern sibling Tantauco, Tepuheico is a private conservation initiative.
The foundation that runs it is a cut above the public forest system (CONAF), so expect to feel a little pampered here.
The basic entrance fee is USD $5 per person for any access point, and $3 for kids under 12 years and adults over 60 years of age.
You can also stay inside the park at their own semi-luxury lodging, starting at $190 per night for a minimum of two persons.
To schedule your visit, pay your entrance fee, and inquire about the lodging if that interests you, please use our contact form to let us know your itinerary and what interests you.
You have two options where to start. The first is assuming you are following the route of parks in this series, and so you would already be on the southern end of the Chiloé, having spent time at Tantauco. From there you could take the bus options directly from the northern park entrance back to Castro only during the peak season when it operates (Jan-Feb), or from the southern entrance by ferry back to Quellon (and then a bus from Quellon to Castro), or by plane directly from the park back to Castro.
If, however, you are starting your itinerary in Puerto Montt, the largest city of southern Chile, you can simply take a bus from Puerto Montt to Castro.
If you’re starting from all the way up in Santiago, read our article on how to get to Puerto Montt by bus from Santiago, which also describes some top attractions to check out when you get there.
To make it even more convenient, we have private drivers available to get you from and to the Puerto Montt airport and from Castro, or for full drives all throughout the Chiloé region.
I will be discussing all the transportation options in the Transportation Options section later in this article.
Open all year
Topography: Coastal Rainforest, marine coastal marshes and beaches
Climate: Rainy but mild
The Tepuheico park contains 20,000 hectares of impenetrable native forest, extending from the Pacific Ocean to the shore of Lake Tepuhueico. The Pirulil Mountain Range crosses the park in a north-south direction. The beaches side are known for their dramatic cliffs that give hikers commanding views of the sea and shoreline. Many endemic species make the park their home and habitat.
The park is a relatively small private reserve that is closest to Castro, making it the best option that combines access and higher quality and achievable experiences for people of all ages.
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Tepuhueico actually has three types of forest formations: the temperate hygrophilous forest, with a predominant presence of tepa, tineo, mañío and coigüe, the conifer or cypress forest, and the swamp forest, also known as tepual. The humid climate and the pristine condition of the territory allow the optimal development of fragile layers formed by epiphytes, lichens and mosses as well as the conservation of mature forests with specimens that exceed 40 meters in height and whose trunks rise like supporting pillars of a natural cathedral.
The size of the protected area is home to multiple habitats; dunes, wetlands, peatlands and forests. Mammals, birds, and reptiles move through the sea, rivers, and trees free of threats. The continuity of the forest is the determining factor for the conservation of currently endangered species such as the huillín, the guiña, the Chiloé fox, the pudú and the monito del monte, the most primitive marsupial on earth. It is also the ideal place for bird watching; the churrin de la mocha, the chucao, the huet huet and the woodpecker in the depths of the forest, the taguas in the wetlands, the kingfisher in the rivers and the Magellanic penguin on the coast. Finally, the Pacific beaches are the amphitheater for spotting southern dolphins and, if you are lucky, the southern right whale.
There are four zones to the park, so you can even further focus in on a type of hiking or landscape that you like and thus make a day trip from Castro more effective. The zones are the lake zone, the forest zone, the mountain zone, and the coastal zone.
The lake zone is on the far eastern edge of the park around the placid Lake Tepuhueico. A lot of animal and plant species come to this lake, and it’s the source for the more famous Rio Bravo waterfall that spills into the opposing Lake Huillinco.
Between the lake and the mountain range lies the most unexplored area of the park, the forest zone. Virgin and evergreen forests provide a canopy to protect a wide range of native species. Plus, it smells so good to walk in the paths among the trees, and revive your spirit.
In the middle of the park rises the mountain zone, also known as Pirulil mountain range. The range measure 10 kilometers in width and rises to 200 meters above sea level. Here in the mountains you will run into cinnamon trees, and on top are plateaus that are boggy and mossy.
Steep gorges sculpted by an a stiff sea welcome you to the coastal zone. The winds from the Pacific enter to give shape to stunted forest and sand dunes, while coming from the opposite direction the rivers empty into coastal lagoons. That’s why it’s a birder’s paradise, as seabirds converge in the lagoons.
|
Name
|
Distance
|
Hiking Time (round-trip)
|
Difficulty
|
Features
|
Open
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Catedral de Arrayanes
|
1 km
|
45 minutes
|
Easy
|
Forest of Arrayanes trees
|
All year
|
|
Rio Bravo
|
3 km
|
2 hours
|
Medium
|
Forest, riverside trail
|
All year
|
|
La Cascada
|
2 km
|
45 minutes
|
Easy
|
Rio Bravo Waterfall
|
All year
|
|
Las Nalcas
|
2 km
|
45 minutes
|
Easy
|
prehistoric medicinal plants with giant leaves
|
All year
|
|
El Tiempo
|
2 km
|
45 minutes
|
Easy
|
coastal dunes, birds, ocean viewpoints from cliffs
|
All year
|
|
Tricolor
|
5 km
|
2 hours 30 minutes
|
Moderate
|
commanding views of the coast and multicolored forests
|
All year
|
The only regular public bus option coming from the south of the island is from Quellon to Castro. That will only be of interest to you if you chose to visit Inio in Tantauco and returned to Quellon by the commuter boat instead of flying back to Castro.
The other bus option would be during January and February going from the northern entrance of Tantauco back to Castro, but that also has no published schedule I can tell you about in advance.
The theme, if you haven’t picked up on it already, is that Castro is your center of gravity for talking about Tepuhueico park. You really will find it hard to avoid Castro.
There are no public buses going from Castro, Chonchi or Puerto Montt to anywhere near the park entrances of Tepuheico, so accept that public transportation can only get you as far as Castro, or maybe to Chonchi, which is a small town just south of Castro and a little closer to Tepuhueico as a starting base. You might find that guides or biologist or expedition specialists in Tepuhueico will actually be based in Chonchi.
Your strategy therefore has to rely on private transportation from Castro or Chonchi, and we will be glad to coordinate that for you with our local contacts there. Just let us know through our reservation form.
If you want to lodge inside the park, also use the contact form to start a conversation about that matter, and then it’s possible the park administration may pick you up from Castro or Chonchi, either free or for a nominal driving fee. This is all negotiable.
Then you can plan on getting back to Castro the same way you came, because for reaching the next parks, Castro is also the best base to pivot.
If you notice from the trail guide above, all of the trails are pretty easy and doable in 3 hours or less, so you can envision leaving Castro in the morning for about a 90 minute drive to one of the park entrances, hiking at a leisurely pace for the rest of the morning, and then going back to Castro for a late lunch. If you want to do more than one trail, do plan on just staying in the park for a night or two.
The bus from Quellon to Castro has many departures throughout the day and takes about 2 hours. You could feasibly plan to arrive still in the early morning and meet up with your private transport to get you from there to either the western or the eastern Tepuhueico park entrances and be back in Castro the same day.
Tepuhueico is best accessed by a private transportation reservation. You can also look at our tours page and there are full guided tours as day trips with bilingual guides and lunch included.
Buses from Puerto Montt are available any day for trips to Castro (4 hours), and seats can be reserved online.
Once you have arrived, follow the instructions stated in the “By private shuttle” section above.
Tepuhueico is good to visit any month of the year, but the best months are January and February.
Castro is so important of a connection point to all of the Chiloe parks, as well as a ferry doc, bus and private transportation hub, that it really pays to make Castro your home base and spend some time getting the know the town itself. It has some cool museums and a culture of its own to make you feel settled in while you plan visits to the parks south, west and north of it.
Lodging inside the park is really lovely, but it can be expensive for some, and I don’t think it’s worth it unless you want to make an effort to cover all the trails inside the park. Otherwise, just plan on finding some good lodging in Castro (or Chonchi).
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