Parque Nacional Cajas, Ruta 3
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 9.13 mi
- Elevation gain
- 2,028 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Difficult
- Elevation loss
- 2,028 ft
- Max elevation
- 13,904 ft
- TrailRank
- 43
- Min elevation
- 12,516 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- 5 hours 5 minutes
- Coordinates
- 16597
- Uploaded
- September 10, 2016
- Recorded
- August 2016
near Dos Cuevas, Azuay (Ecuador)
Viewed 1835 times, downloaded 142 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
9 mile loop starting at Torreadora, which I reached via a 1-hour bus ride (Transportes Occidental) from Cuenca. The bus departs from their office on a side street between the Arenal city bus terminal and the TIA supermarket.
You first must register at the Torreadora ranger station and tell them where you're going. They have no maps to sell there, so you're best off pre-loading your phone or GPS with the maps you need. Open Hiking Map loaded onto Gaia was excellent for me. Also, excellent info is here: http://parque-nacional-cajas.org/tracks.html. Click on a particular trail for a map you can print out for that trail.
The last eastbound bus headed for Cuenca passes Torreadora at 4 p.m. If you miss that one, you may be able to hitch a ride, as I did.
The first 1.5 miles of the hike was along the highway, which has a shoulder, and which gets a fair amount of traffic. The next mile follows a mule track frequented by residents of a village to the north called Baute. Ruta 3 forks to the right (east), and the route is marked by arrows painted on rocks. My track includes a couple of short cross-country segments. The entire route is between 12,000 and 13,000 ft. elevation. Saw some nice wildflowers along the way. The whole area is virtually treeless paramo, so there would be little shelter during bad weather.
You first must register at the Torreadora ranger station and tell them where you're going. They have no maps to sell there, so you're best off pre-loading your phone or GPS with the maps you need. Open Hiking Map loaded onto Gaia was excellent for me. Also, excellent info is here: http://parque-nacional-cajas.org/tracks.html. Click on a particular trail for a map you can print out for that trail.
The last eastbound bus headed for Cuenca passes Torreadora at 4 p.m. If you miss that one, you may be able to hitch a ride, as I did.
The first 1.5 miles of the hike was along the highway, which has a shoulder, and which gets a fair amount of traffic. The next mile follows a mule track frequented by residents of a village to the north called Baute. Ruta 3 forks to the right (east), and the route is marked by arrows painted on rocks. My track includes a couple of short cross-country segments. The entire route is between 12,000 and 13,000 ft. elevation. Saw some nice wildflowers along the way. The whole area is virtually treeless paramo, so there would be little shelter during bad weather.
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