NATIONAL PARKS IN ARGENTINA

The Provincial Park of Aconcagua is an integrated part of the Network of Protected Natural Resources of the Province of Mendoza, and as such is found under the administration of the Direction of Renewable Natural Resources, dependent on the Ministry of the Environment and Public Works of the Province of Mendoza, Republic of Argentina.

This network is presently composed of 10 protected areas, and there are many others that are being studied for later inclusion.

• Parque Provincial Cerro Aconcagua
• Reserva Laguna del Diamante
• Reserva Natural Divisadero Largo
• Reserva Florística y Faunística Bosque Telteca
• Reserva de la Biósfera Ñacuñán
• Reserva Total La Payunia
• Parque Provincial Volcán Tupungato
• Reserva Caverna de las Brujas
• Reserva Manzano Histórico

This park comprises an area of 76.000 hectares. It was created with to protect the mountain subtropical forest. Its rich fauna consists of species such as the yaguedondí, red squirrel, red agouti, melero bear, ferret, tapir and puma. It is the last refuge of species like the yaguareté.

Its relief corresponds to the slopes of the Serranías de Calilegua, with deep canyons carved by water courses.

It has an under wood sector consisting of White , Yellow wood, the Tipa and the Pacará, which can be higher than 30 m. Then you will find the higher forest or nuboselva, covered by clouds in summer and at the beginning of autumn, with a thick under wood of creepers, lianas and shrubs.

This Park, which was recently created to preserve the "giant cactus" (a typical cactus of this region that grows between the 2000 and 3500 m.a.s.l.), occupies an area of 65.000 hectares. The fruit of the "giant cactus", the pascana, is edible
The area is a desert and its mountain landscapes are extremely beautiful.

It comprises an area of 45.000 hectares and is a magnificent exponent of the forest landscape of subtropical woods. This park keeps its flora and fauna intact. Surrounded by mountains of about 1000 m.a.s.l., the park stands out as a natural amphitheater with streams of crystal water flowing downhill through the valley.
The park lodges a large number of animal species such as: the puma, the yaguareté, the fox, the tapir, the coati, the biting bat, monkeys and others. Birds such as the condor, falcon, and the mount turkey hen. Snakes such as the rattlesnake, cross snake and coral snake. Insects and snails.
The water courses are rich in dorados, American shads, bogues, croakers, etc.

72.000 hectares of still quite isolated and seldom visited. It has a fully irregular relief, with several mountain ridges and folds irregularly distributed. The difficulties to reach that zone, added to a tropical climate, the rivers, streams, falls and deep canyons, favored the preservation of a vegetation of the forest type, and an extraordinary rich fauna.

It was declared Natural World Heritate site by the UNESCO. It comprises an area of 67.000 hectares, including its connected reservation.
It nearly constitutes the last exponent of the subtropical forest in the country and includes the world famous Iguazu Falls. Its existence is aimed at the preservation of the already mentioned falls and of a neighboring zone representative of the original forest surroundings of Misiones (before the deforestation carried out by men), last integral refuge of the regional flora and fauna.

It is both a Park and a Natural Reserve whose main aim is to preserve the vast Yatay palm trees areas which used to cover the Entre Rios, Uruguay and part of the south of Brazil territories up to the end of the last century.

With an area of 40.000 hectares, this park is situated on the eastern hillside of the Pampa of Achala with elevations that range between the 1900 and 2300 m.
The tourist attraction is based on its landscape and geomorphologic values: the high pampa covered by pastures, the rocky sierra without vegetation, and the deep gorges.

This park, which occupies 215.000 hectares, is an autochthonous flora and fauna natural reservation, and palaeontologic and archeological deposit.
As long as geological formations are concerned, this park is formed by strata that make up deep canyons of around 180 m. of height. This canyons were wind eroded giving birth to curious formations such as the Monk, The Wise Man, the Tower, and many others.

This park occupies 150.000 hectares and is composed of piled geological formations of gray and reddish coloring coming from the Mesozoic Age. This formations were wind and water eroded throughout the centuries.
These sierras were first called “Pequeño Cañón del Colorado” (Little Colorado Canyon), due to its resemblance to the famous canyon.
Due to the erosion, the formations acquired capricious forms reaching its maximum climax with the so called “Potrero de Aguada”: a succession of bleachers, cliffs and cornices.

It comprises an area of 379.000 hectares. 194.600 hectares belong to the park and the remaining 184.400 belong to three sectors of reservation.
Within this park lies the majestic Lanin volcano, hence its name, with its 3776 m.a.s.l. and its almost perfect conical form.
This park was created with the aim of preserving a representative sector of the Andean-Patagonic region absent from other protected areas such as the pellin oak, evergreen beech, and araucaria woods (whose valuable wood was highly exploited at the beginning of the last century).

In the Quetrihué Peninsula, near to Villa La Angostura, you can find this small park whose object is to preserve a landscape unique in the world: The myrtle woods.
It is a native tree of singular beauty. Its twisted trunk has a cinnamon coloring bark covered by white irregular spots and is both cold and very smooth to the touch. It grows in a very slow way, reaching heights of about 12 and 15 meters with a trunk of approximately 50 centimeters of diameter.

First South American Park and one of the first in the world, this vast and wonderful park occupies an area of 766.000 hectares (the park and two reservations).
It has a mountainous relief typical of the southern Andes. Its geomorphology presents medium height mounts, glaciers, rivers, lakes, woods, and valleys.
The most important peak of the park is the Mount Tronador with 3554 m.a.s.l.
It has a large number of lakes such as the vast Nahuel Huapi, the Traful, the Correntoso, the Falkner, the Villariño and others.
Among the birds we can find the cormorant (queer species that inhabit the Victoria Island), cooking gulls, black neck herons, woodpecker, witch heron, great bustard, etc.

This National Park comprises an area of 23.700 hectares and offers a mountainous scenery (with heights that exceed the 2000 m. of height) and woods with quite strange species that do not exist in other Andean Patagonic parks.
The Puelo lake, after which the park was named, has a bluish green tone and its waters are more temperate than most of the Patagonic lakes due to its low height. (205 m.a.s.l.).

The park comprises a total area of 263. 000 hectares. It was created with the aim of preserving an exceptional natural patrimony: the larch woods.
These conifers, a truly botanical curiosity, are about 3.000 years old and 60 meters high with trunks of about 3,5 m. in diameter.
This Park, just as the other National Parks located in the Andean Patagonia, possess an uneven mountainous relief with valleys peppered by rivers and lakes of unparalleled beauty among which we can find the Futalaufquen, Verde, Menéndez and Rivadavia lakes.

Declared Natural World Heritate Site by the UNESCO, this park includes one of the most spectacular landscape beauties in the world: The glaciers. It occupies 600.000 hectares and is surrounded by lakes, woods and mountains. You will find here the imposing Perito Moreno Glacier, the Upsala Glacier, and others.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is the most spectacular and the easiest one to reach: with its 80 m.of elevation above the sea level, it is admired by thousands of tourists coming from all over the world.

This park constitutes the southernmost protected natural area of the Argentine Republic. It comprises an area of 63.000 hectares. It has a fully irregular relief with a succession of steep mountains, rivers, and lakes giving birth to several astounding landscapes. A series of mountain ranges with north to south orientation act as barriers that divide the park into valleys quite difficult to reach.