The world's southernmost trek no one talks about: your complete guide to the Dientes de Navarino Circuit, Chile

Every serious trekker in Patagonia has heard of Torres del Paine. Many have done El Chaltén. A handful have suffered their way across the Dientes de Navarino, the jagged granite ridge that forms the spine of Navarino Island, the southernmost inhabited land mass in the world before Antarctica begins.

The Dientes de Navarino trek is not famous. This is not an oversight. The trail sits at the end of a ferry crossing from Ushuaia, in a town of 3,000 people that most travelers skip on their way between Argentina and Chile, across terrain that demands genuine respect and preparation. The people who have done it mostly describe it in the same breath as other Patagonian circuits, with one added variable: here, there is truly nothing between you and the end of the world.

National Geographic has called it one of the world's great wilderness treks. It has the route profile and the remoteness to justify that description. What it doesn't have is a glossy booking infrastructure, a park office full of helpful rangers, or a well-marked trail that a fit beginner can follow without a guide. What it has is 53 kilometres of one of the most dramatically beautiful circuits in the Southern Hemisphere, used by perhaps a few hundred trekkers a year, with no permit required, no booking fee, and no one waiting at the trailhead to help you if something goes wrong.

This is your complete guide.

Where on Earth Is Navarino Island?

Pull up a map of South America and trace the continent to its southern tip. Below Ushuaia in Argentina, the southernmost city in the world, across the Beagle Channel, lies Navarino Island. Its main town, Puerto Williams, sits at 54°56' south latitude. Cape Horn, another 100 kilometres south, is technically a Chilean island; Navarino Island is the last inhabited place before it.

Puerto Williams has 3,000 inhabitants: Chilean naval officers and their families, a small community of scientists from the university research station, a handful of tourism operators, and the Yaghan, the last survivors of the Yahgan people, who navigated these waters in bark canoes and survived naked in sub-Antarctic temperatures for thousands of years before European contact destroyed them. The Yaghan language is near extinction; the last fully fluent speaker, Cristina Calderón, lives in Villa Ukika on the edge of Puerto Williams.

Getting to Puerto Williams requires either a 70-minute flight from Punta Arenas (operated by DAP Aviation, twice or three times weekly) or a 24-hour ferry crossing from Punta Arenas through the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel on the Yaghan ferry. The ferry is cheaper, slower, and vastly more atmospheric. Most trekkers fly one way and ferry the other.

The trek itself begins and ends approximately 2 kilometres east of the Puerto Williams centre, at the Cerro Bandera trailhead.

The Dientes de Navarino Trek: five passes and what lies between them

The circuit covers approximately 53 kilometres and is typically completed in four to six days, depending on pace, weather, and how much time you want to spend in camp watching the Beagle Channel change colour. The terrain is demanding, five mountain passes, each requiring hands-on scrambling in places, with significant exposure to Patagonian weather at every high point. This is not a walk that rewards overconfidence.

The circuit is described here in clockwise direction, which most trekkers prefer for technical reasons (the initial ascent to Cerro Bandera is gentler, and the harder passes come mid-route when trekkers are warmed in).

Day 1: Cerro Bandera to Laguna del Salto (10–12km)

The first climb is a 3-hour ascent to the cross on Cerro Bandera, from which the view of the Beagle Channel, the Darwin Range of Tierra del Fuego across the water, and the jagged Dientes ridge stretching south and west makes the effort immediately worthwhile. The trail descends from Cerro Bandera into a valley of lenga beech forest before climbing through increasingly rocky terrain to the first night's camp at Laguna del Salto, a glacial tarn beneath the central teeth of the Dientes. The trees thin as you climb; above treeline, the terrain is windswept grass, scramble-rock, and permanent patches of snow even in midsummer.

Day 2: Laguna del Salto to Laguna Escondida via Paso Virginia (10–11km)

Paso Virginia, at approximately 850 metres, is the circuit's highest point. The approach from Laguna del Salto involves sustained scrambling on loose quartzite, good friction when dry, treacherous when wet, which is most of the time. From the pass, the view south towards Cape Horn is unobstructed on a clear day; from here, you understand viscerally that you are standing at the edge of the world. The descent to Laguna Escondida drops steeply through boulder fields into the island's interior, where the wind is blocked by the ridge and camp feels, by comparison, almost sheltered.

Day 3: Laguna Escondida to Laguna Los Dientes (9–10km)

This section of the Dientes de Navarino trek passes through the most remote section of the circuit, a long traverse beneath the southern face of the main ridge, crossing several minor passes with views south into uninhabited valleys that drain eventually into the Drake Passage. The camp at Laguna Los Dientes is the circuit's most exposed, with the full Beagle Channel visible to the north and the night sky, on cloudless evenings, extraordinary. Bring proper wind protection; the gusts here are real and sustained.

Day 4: Laguna Los Dientes to Laguna El Salto (via circuit return) or Puerto Williams (10–12km)

The final day returns north through the eastern arm of the circuit, dropping back through lenga beech forest towards Puerto Williams. Some trekkers extend to a fifth day with a lateral excursion to the glacial lakes in the island's interior; a guide is strongly recommended for any off-route navigation. The return to Puerto Williams brings showers, hot food, and the particular satisfaction that comes specifically from having walked somewhere almost no one has walked.

Yahgan Heritage: walking through the land of the world's southernmost people

The Yahgan people did not merely survive in this environment, they thrived in it. Archaeological evidence shows Yahgan occupation of Navarino Island and the surrounding channels for at least 7,000 years. The shell middens (refuse heaps of mussel and sea urchin shells) that line sections of the Beagle Channel shoreline near Puerto Williams are some of the most extensive in the southern hemisphere.

The Yahgan's relationship with the sub-Antarctic environment was one of the most remarkable human adaptations ever documented. They wore almost no clothing, a light application of marine mammal grease was their primary protection against temperatures that regularly fell below freezing, and maintained core body temperature through sustained metabolic activity, not insulation. Their canoes, made from lenga beech bark, were the primary mode of transport through a channel system that spans hundreds of kilometres of islands and passages.

European contact beginning with Fitzroy's Beagle voyages in the 1830s (which included the young Charles Darwin on the second voyage) introduced epidemic disease and cultural disruption that devastated the Yahgan population from an estimated 3,000 to a handful of survivors within two generations. The Yahgan language, the most complex in the region, famously contributing the word mamihlapinatapai (a look shared by two people who each wish the other would initiate something they both desire, described by The Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most succinct word), is now spoken fluently by only a handful of elderly individuals.

Walking the Dientes de Navarino is to walk through Yahgan territory. The responsible approach acknowledges that, and includes time in Puerto Williams to visit the Museo Martín Gusinde, a small but serious museum dedicated to Yahgan history and culture, named for the Austrian priest who documented Yahgan life in the early 20th century before it disappeared entirely.

Getting there: the logistics of the end of the world

From Buenos Aires or Santiago: Fly to Punta Arenas, Chile (approximately 3–4 hours). Punta Arenas is the gateway to southern Patagonia and has good flight connections from both capitals.

From Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams: Two options.

DAP Aviation operates small turboprop flights (9-passenger Cessna Grand Caravans) between Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, with return flights the same days. The flight takes approximately 70 minutes and crosses over the Strait of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego, and the Beagle Channel, the aerial scenery alone is worth the price. Book well in advance; seats are limited and fill quickly in high season.

The Yaghan ferry departs from Punta Arenas on Friday evenings, arrives in Puerto Williams approximately 24 hours later (via a call at Puerto Navarino), and returns on Sundays. The slow crossing through the Magellan Strait and the Beagle Channel is genuinely beautiful and allows wildlife watching (Magellanic penguins, Peale's dolphins, albatross, condors) that no flight can offer. Cabins are available for an additional fee.

In Puerto Williams: The town has a handful of residenciales (guesthouses), the Hostal Pusaki (the standard choice for trekkers), and a small supermarket. Stock up on food before you start the trek; there is no resupply once you leave town.

Season: November through March is the optimal window for the Dientes de Navarino trek. February and March are statistically the driest months, though weather here is fundamentally unpredictable, sub-Antarctic storms can arrive in any month and turn a pleasant high-pressure day into a white-out within hours. Plan for the worst and you'll appreciate the best. The circuit is technically hikeable in April, but snow on the passes becomes a real complication and temperatures drop sharply.

Guided vs. self-guided: what each choice really means at the end of the world

The Dientes de Navarino trek has no ranger station, no hut system, no emergency rescue infrastructure, and no mobile phone signal outside Puerto Williams. The trail is marked with cairns (stone piles) in exposed sections and red blazes on trees in forested sections, but is not always easy to follow in poor visibility. Stream crossings can be impassable after heavy rain.

Self-guided trekking is possible for experienced trekkers who:

• Have previous multi-day route-finding experience in terrain without clear trail markers
• Carry a GPS device loaded with the circuit route (maps are available from operators in Puerto Williams)
• Have proper wilderness first aid knowledge and a communication device (satellite messenger strongly recommended)
• Can confidently assess weather windows and make abort decisions

For everyone else, and particularly for those doing the circuit for the first time, a local guide transforms the experience. The best guides here are from Puerto Williams itself, they know the passes in all conditions, know when to cross and when to wait, and carry the kind of contextual knowledge about Yahgan history and sub-Antarctic ecology that converts a demanding physical challenge into a genuinely educational journey.

Outer Experiences connects trekkers with verified Puerto Williams–based operators who guide the Dientes de Navarino circuit regularly and can provide the logistical support that makes the difference between a miserable Type-3 experience and the best week of your life.

Cape Horn: the pilgrimage south of south

From Puerto Williams, it is possible, weather permitting, which is rarely, to take a charter boat to Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America. The crossing takes approximately 3 hours from Puerto Williams through the Beagle Channel to Bahía Nassau and then to the Drake Passage approach. Cape Horn itself is a Chilean Naval station with a lighthouse, a small chapel, and an albatross sculpture dedicated to sailors lost in the Drake Passage since the 16th century.

Only a tiny fraction of visitors to Chile ever reach Cape Horn. Most who do arrive by cruise ship from Ushuaia. Adding it to a Dientes de Navarino circuit creates an itinerary, a few days in Puerto Williams, five days on the circuit, one day at Cape Horn, that constitutes one of the most complete far-south experiences available to a traveller who is not a professional sailor.

Sailings to Cape Horn are operated by a small number of Puerto Williams–based operators and are subject to weather cancellations without notice. The Drake Passage crossing between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula, if you want to keep going, is another proposition entirely.

Practical Information

Permits: None required. The Dientes de Navarino circuit is open and free of charge. Register your itinerary with CONAF or the municipal authority in Puerto Williams before departing, this is not legally required but is strongly recommended for safety reasons.

Accommodation in Puerto Williams: Hostal Pusaki is the standard trekker guesthouse. Book ahead in peak season.

Kit: This is sub-Antarctic terrain. Waterproof everything (jacket, trousers, pack cover, tent). Gaiters. Poles. A wind layer for exposed passes. Emergency bivy. 30+ litres of pack capacity for the 4-day version; more for extensions. Camp shoes (the stream crossings are cold and repeated). A satellite communicator (Garmin inReach or SPOT) is effectively non-negotiable for solo trekkers and strongly recommended for small groups.

Water: Available from streams throughout the circuit. Filter or treat as a precaution.

Wildlife: Condors are regularly sighted from the high passes. Upland geese are common in the valleys. Austral parakeets, black-necked swans, and southern lapwings are present near water. In the Beagle Channel, Commerson's dolphins are frequently seen from Puerto Williams' harbour.

The Dientes de Navarino trek is not the most comfortable experience available in Patagonia. It is not the most accessible, the best-served, or the easiest to book. It is, by a significant margin, one of the most extraordinary, a 53-kilometre immersion in sub-Antarctic wilderness that ends with the view south toward the last few hundred kilometres of land before the ocean runs all the way to Antarctica.

Go before the circuit becomes famous. Go while the only footprints on Paso Virginia are those of condors and the occasional mad trekker who made it this far south and chose to keep walking.

Want to do the Dientes de Navarino circuit with a verified local guide from Puerto Williams? Outer Experiences works with operators who know these passes in all conditions and can handle everything from logistics to emergency communication.

Cover photo of Ladera Sur