The morning belongs entirely to the park — a last look at the massif before the road turns east and drops into the Argentine steppe. Today is a border day, a transition day, but a generous one: there are stops worth taking before the crossing, and the drive across the Patagonian plateau that follows has its own spare, windswept beauty. By early evening the lights of El Calafate are visible across the dark flats, and the journey shifts from one great park to another.
East of the Towers
The day begins with an 8:00 am departure from the Las Torres campsite, in the park's central sector below the Ascencio valley. The gravel road out winds through lenga beech woodland before opening onto the eastern steppe, passing the Laguna Amarga ranger station — the main entry gate for visitors arriving from outside — at around 8:35. Laguna Amarga itself is visible from the road: a broad, shallow lake with a greenish tint from its high alkaline content, rimmed with white calcium carbonate formations called stromatolites. Chilean flamingos feed in its shallows when conditions allow, and the towers of the massif rise directly above in clear weather.
From the gate, the route turns onto the Y-166 — a gravel road that branches northeast just past the Laguna Amarga estancia buildings, signposted toward the cascada. It is quieter than the main park circuit and carries little through traffic. The road passes through open steppe grassland grazed by guanacos, and this eastern corridor is the most productive stretch in the park for wildlife watching from the car: herds of a dozen or more are common in the morning, and it is here, between the gate and the waterfall, that the occasional puma sighting gets reported.