Outings and excursions · San Carlos de Bariloche
Lago Escondido and Laguna El Trébol: two stops on the Circuito Chico
Photos: gavin_62 · CC BY 3.0 / Amina Ferley Yael · CC BY-SA 4.0 / Amina Ferley Yael · CC BY-SA 4.0 / Matías Garay · CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
An hour-long walk through the forest to Lago Escondido and Bahía de los Troncos, and an urban lagoon with more than 10,000 years of history. Two stops that make the Circuito Chico more than a drive.
The Circuito Chico is often done in a hurry: a photo at each viewpoint and off you go. But along the way there are two places worth getting out of the car for and staying a while.
The first is Lago Escondido. Four kilometers past Puerto Pañuelo, opposite the park rangers' house, a short, almost flat trail begins, ideal for doing with children. Right after entering, bear left and, after 500 meters, you reach the pier on the lake. Five hundred meters farther on is Bahía de los Troncos, a small beach by the water. The round trip takes about an hour.
The second is Laguna El Trébol, a very shallow lagoon beside the road, now part of an urban nature reserve. Its history is the most striking thing about it: it formed some 15,000 years ago through glacial erosion and, in a nearby cave, remains of hearths and animals were found that point to hunter-gatherers who lived there more than 10,000 years ago. The areas with fossil records are not open to visitors and are reserved for researchers; what you can do is stop, look at the lagoon and think about everything that happened on its shores before there was a road.
Two short stops, two ways of understanding that in Bariloche the landscape also has a memory.
- Type of tour: Scenic
- Difficulty level: Low
- Tip: The trail to Lago Escondido is inside the Llao Llao Municipal Park: register and pay the entrance fee before going in. Camping, fires and bicycles are not allowed.
