Cerro La Campana

After many weeks of traveling and a few weeks of being consumed by the proposal deadline for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, we were itching to get back into the mountains and away from the city. Not feeling up to committing to a full weekend, we opted for a day trip to the coastal mountain range between Santiago and the Pacific Ocean, on Cerro La Campana. I had never been to the coastal range, other than passing over/through it on the way to and from Valparaiso, so I was excited about the opportunity to try something new. The chance of being able to see the Pacific Ocean and the Andes from the same place was also very appealing.

We left Santiago before 0800, aiming to arrive at the CONAF park around 0930 to ensure they would let us hike all the way up to the summit (many public and private parks in Chile are unnecessarily strict about departure times for hikes). The drive was nice, particularly a windy road up a mountain pass to cross over to the west side of the coastal range. We arrived to a 2/3-full parking lot at the park entrance and took our place in line to register and pay the entrance fee. After a short wait we were registered and started hiking a little before 1000.

The lower portion of the trail wound its way through the woods, taking switchbacks ever upwards. After about two hours of hiking we arrived at the entrance to an old mine. The broad plateau in front of the mine made a natural collecting/meeting point, and we saw there was quite a crowd hiking the trail, in contrast to the handful of people we had actually encountered while on the trail. As with many others, we deemed this a good place to stop for lunch and enjoyed the view towards the ocean while eating sandwiches and drinking water.

After a while we continued upwards towards the summit. The trees began thinning and the trail became more rocky. As we got higher, we also noticed the leaves had changed color, reflecting the advance of autumn. Fall colors is not something that seems to happen much in Santiago, so it was nice to see yellows and reds on the slopes of La Campana.

As we worked our way East and upwards, the dirt trail became increasingly rocky until eventually we were scrambling up a talus field.

After another hour and a half of ascending, including some easy class II sections, we achieved the small summit ridge. The true summit was to our left and another slightly lower summit was on our right, so we turned left and gained the final 10 meters to the top, where we were greeted by a Chilean flag and a crowd of people resting and enjoying a beautiful day in the mountains.

Interestingly, the vast majority of people had oriented themselves facing West, towards the Pacific Ocean and with a view of Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, as opposed to the view of the Andes in the other direction. The threat of inclement weather in the Andes was one factor that led us to hike in the coastal mountains instead of the pre-cordillera; as we looked on from the summit, most of the range was obscured by building clouds. On a clear day, it is possible to view Aconcagua—the tallest peak in the Americas— from the summit of La Campana. But today the entire mountain was obscured behind a shield of lenticular clouds. Knowing where to look, the prominent mountain-shaped lenticular cloud was clearly concealing Aconcagua, but it was not directly visible.

We spent a while on the summit, eating some more, resting, and enjoying the view. Just below the summit we could see a fox winding its way through the rocks, probably hoping to find scraps of food left by hikers. And over an adjacent ridge a condor rode thermals into the sky. What a great day to be outside.

The descent off the summit went reasonably smooth. The rocky path made the going slow at times, and the pounding steps reminded my knees of their inactivity over the past few months. But after an hour or two of picking our way through the talus we found ourselves back on the dirt trail.

An interesting side-note about this mountain is that it was visited by Charles Darwin during his famous voyage on the HMS Beagle. “Carlos”, as listed on the commemorative plaque, spent some time around Valparaiso in 1834 and apparently even experienced a Chilean earthquake (a must-do for any visitor!). It is not often that you are able to follow the footsteps of a famous naturalist such as Darwin, so that was neat.

The final portion of the descent went fine, though we hiked a bit slower than normal as Claudia was experiencing some knee pain. We arrived back at the car around 1800 with tired legs and smiles on our faces.