North Along the Baker
The departure is around midday, heading north on the Carretera Austral with the Río Baker running alongside the opening stretch. The Baker is Chile's most voluminous river by average flow, its turquoise current fed by meltwater from the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, and it accompanies the road for the first portion of the drive with a constancy that feels almost companionable.
The first stop, roughly half an hour north of town, is one of the most photographed along this section of the highway. A wooden gate on the roadside marks the trailhead to the Confluencia Ríos Baker y Neff — a short, nearly flat walk of about 800 meters to the viewpoint where the Río Neff pours into the Baker. The contrast is immediate: the Baker runs clear turquoise, fed by Lago Bertrand upstream, while the Neff arrives heavy with glacial sediment from the Northern Ice Field, a milky celadon green that resists blending cleanly into the Baker's clarity. Just above the confluence the Baker drops over a rapid more than ten meters high, generating a low, constant roar audible from the trail. After the junction, the Baker's color is never quite the same as it was before.