Volcán Puyehue, 2240m tall, blew its top the day after the earthquake in 1960, turning a large chunk of dense, humid evergreen forest into a stark landscape of sand dunes and lava rivers. Today, Parque Nacional Puyehue protects 1070 sq km of this contrasting environment, and it is one of the more developed of the country’s national parks, with a ski resort and several hot-spring resorts within its boundaries.
There are also several hikes that explore more pristine areas of the national park. Aguas Calientes is the main sector of the park, with the hot-springs resort and Conaf’s Centro de Información Ambiental , which houses an informative display on Puyehue’s natural history and geomorphology.
