Huascarán National Park
By Kitti and John
What is Huascarán National Park?
Huascarán National Park is located in the central Peruvian Andes in the department of Áncash. It comprises most of the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which is the world’s highest tropical mountain range. It became a protected area in 1975 and a biosphere reserve in 1977. In 1985, it became a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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The closest city to the national park is Huaraz, considered the gateway to the Huascarán National Park. Huaraz offers a variety of outdoor activities and is often referred to as the ‘hiking capital of Peru.’
Why is Huascarán National Park a UNESCO World Heritage site?
UNESCO gave Huascarán World Heritage status due to its biodiversity, geological complexity and natural beauty.
Since the national park covers most of the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, its “most overwhelming visual feature,” according to UNESCO, “is the aggregation of 27 snow-capped peaks above 6,000 m.a.s.l, in particular the Nevado Huascaran or Mount Huascaran, Peru’s highest elevation at 6,768 m.a.s.l.” That is the equivalent of 22,200 feet above sea level. The huge range of elevations – from 2,500 meters to 6,768 meters (8,200-22,200 feet) – means that the park includes a wide diversity of terrain, vegetation and animal and bird species.
In addition, “Underlying the exceptional landscape of Huascaran National Park is a broad spectrum of remarkable ongoing geological features and processes shaping the impressive geomorphology.” The park includes peaks, glaciers, lakes, and high plateaus.
What can you expect on a visit to Huascarán?
Huascarán National Park quite literally took our breath away. Sitting at such high altitudes, this wasn’t hard to achieve. Its snow-capped peaks and lakes, all shades of blue and turquoise, left us speechless and immediately made the Cordillera Blanca one of our favourite mountain ranges within the majestic Andes.
The national park is a true hikers’ paradise with many day hikes, summits, and multi-day trekking options available. Some of the best and most popular hikes within Huascarán National Park are:
- Laguna 69 (day hike);
- Mateo (1-day climb);
- Laguna Paron (day hike);
- Laguna Churup (day hike);
- Pastoruri Glacier (day hike); and,
- Santa Cruz Trek (4-day trek).
Is Huascarán National Park worth visiting?
Huascarán is well worth a visit if you’re an outdoor lover with a passion for hiking, climbing and trekking. Whilst this area is getting more popular, it’s still less visited than the Sacred Valley of the Incas near Cusco, where Machu Picchu is located.
That being said, we wouldn’t make the long journey there from Lima if you only have a short amount of time in Peru and don’t enjoy hiking, or don’t handle being at high altitude very well.
Tips for visiting Huascarán
Huascarán National Park and the surrounding area is all at a high elevation. If you’re coming straight from sea level, we suggest allocating at least one full day to acclimatise. Huaraz sits around 3,050 m (10,013 ft) above sea level and there are many acclimatisation hikes you can do before attempting a more challenging trail within the national park.
Lots of companies offer guided hikes in Huascarán National Park, either one-day hikes or multi-day hikes.
To enter Huascarán, you’ll have to purchase a national park pass. This fee is usually excluded from any day tour cost. There are a few different options, depending on how many hikes you want to do: a one-day pass, a 2-3-day pass, or a 30-day pass.
If you’re only doing a few day hikes, be prepared for some long and bumpy van rides between Huaraz and the trailheads.
If you are a non-hiker, there aren’t many opportunities for you. You can still visit a few lagoons, such as Laguna Paron, without much hiking. Even to get to Laguna Paron, however, you will be sitting in a vehicle for 6-7 hours just to spend an hour at the site, especially if you stay in Huaraz. If you want to rent a car, you should stay in some smaller places closer to the park like Caraz.
Where is Huascarán National Park?
The closest city to the national park is Huaraz. You can take an hour-long flight from Lima to Comandante FAP Germán Arias Graziani Airport (ATA), which is about 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Huaraz. Alternatively, you can reach Huaraz with an overnight bus from Lima.
From Huaraz, the best way to get to the national park is with tours that offer direct transport services to many popular hikes. Alternatively, you can use a mix of colectivos (shared minivans) and taxis to reach the park. Hiring a car is also an option. However the roads within the national park require you to drive a vehicle that can handle some pretty tough conditions: choose a 4-wheel drive vehicle that can handle gravel / dirt tracks..
For more information about Huascarán National Park, see Peru’s tourism promotion website.
Have you been to Huascarán? If so, do you have any additional information or advice about this UNESCO World Heritage site? Please add your comments below!