My Wild Patagonian Adventure

Posted byKerryPosted inbeautiful places, Cold, New Year, travel, tripsTags:,

I’m back! After about a month running around the world, I have finally landed back in Kansas. Frank and I had a fantastic time in Patagonia. We spent our time hiking through several Chilean and Argentine National Parks, checking out some of the towns in the region, and of course, seeing penguins. Here are just some of the pictures from our adventures. I have thousands…

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Although the trip was incredibly fun, Patagonia is a very touristy place. I was expecting to be out there and find no one but a few really dedicated hikers and mountaineers, but in reality, it was covered in European, Israeli, and British tourists. It was also a lot more expensive than I expected. I am certainly glad that we went, but if I had known what Patagonia would be like, I likely would have gone somewhere else.

To be completely honest, I have yet to find a National Park system in the world that can compete with the US in maintenance and cost. While in Patagonia, I longed for the solace of Canyonlands and Glacier National Park. In the US, you really only have to hike a few miles into the backcountry to find yourself completely alone. That was not the case in Patagonia. No matter how far I went, I always found crowds and tons of people (and garbage). I did leave with an extreme appreciation for our National Park Service.

Now that I have returned, I will be getting back to consistent blogging. I am putting together a training program to run Colfax again in May. I will be blogging my training progress as I prepare for the race. I will also have a few other races on my calendar, which I’ll leave for another post.

I hope you all had a great month, and I am looking forward to getting back in touch.

What is your favorite National Park? Do you have any races coming up soon?

12 thoughts on “My Wild Patagonian Adventure”

  1. Well, it certainly looks stunning! I can be pretty touristy — not that into camping (I could embrace glamping, though.

    Rocky Mountain National Park was probably my favorite . . . so far. Yosemite wasn’t bad either. But both were many, many, MANY years ago!

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  2. I never would have guessed it can be so touristy and not well maintained! Wow. You’re right that does make me appreciate our NPS even more. Regardless, your pics are gorgeous and I’m so glad you had a good time!

    Since you mentioned races AND Canyonlands…you don’t happen to be free March 18? If so you should run the Canyonlands Half with me!!! It would be right up your alley and fit perfectly into your marathon build up!!! 😀

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    1. Oh man… I would love to. And if certain things fall into place, it would be very possible for me to do that. Unfortunately, I am not going to know for a while (cryptic, I know, but I’ll talk about this stuff soon).

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    1. Yeah, the proportions out there really didn’t look real. It was crazy.

      I love our parks so much. Frank laughs at me about how excited I get when I see a National Park sign.

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  5. It looks beautiful there. I’m going to Chile in a few months, but not to Patagonia, closer to Santiago. We definitely have some fantastic national parks in the US. It’s tough to pick a favorite so I’ll pick my top 3- Acadia National Park, Yosemite, and Glacier National Park. I’m going to Utah next month and can’t wait to see some parks there.

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    1. That’s awesome. Santiago looked like it is really pretty (I had an layover there), although the smog is crazy there.

      I actually got married at Glacier National Park, so that is my obvious number one pick!

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