Parque Nacional Cajas

Our backpacking adventure in Parque Nacional Cajas was truly an amazing experience. My words or our pictures could never convey the natural beauty of the area, but I can at least describe our adventure.


Cajas is notorious for rainy, cold weather. It is also known as being a bit disorienting, as there are over 235 lakes that all look similar after a while. Little did we know as we came in to Cajas that it would deliver on both accounts during our trip.

We arrived late on Saturday and stayed in the refugio. It’s $4/night to stay in the park – in the hut with a full kitchen and indoor plumbing or in your own tent – so why not enjoy the roof while it’s 40 degrees and raining?

On Sunday, we set out for what we thought would be a three day loop through the park. Our first mistake was to walk to the trailhead. 4 km uphill, starting at over 4000m, is tough. Real tough. After finally getting to the trial head, the first half of the day went fine. For this portion we were following the main trail. However, after a bit our loop had us going off the main trail to the east of a lake instead of taking the main trail to the west. At this point it was raining heavily and we missed our “turnoff” and continued on down the trail. After about a half hour of heading the wrong way and misidentifying a lake, we finally realized we had gone wrong some where. Trying to regain our bearings, the map disintegrated in our hands due to the heavy rain. We had backup map, but wanted to keep one in decent condition so it was buried in the (relatively dry) pack. We saw the main road in the distance and decided to head out. We had been walking for 5 hrs, were a few hours from our campsite, and soaked, so the refugio seemed like a good choice for the night.

That night, as we sat around the map after dinner, we realized we could take another trail and meet up with our intended route the next day. We would still be able to make it a two day trip. The trip was not lost!

Bright and early Monday, we set out (downhill, 1km) for the trailhead. It was identified on our map by a (I kid you not!) “llama watching zone” symbol. As we walked up, we saw llamas grazing on the hillsides. How picturesque, no? We started climbing and after about 15 minutes we noticed a group of 5 llamas coming down the trial we were ascending. One was the obvious dominant male and he was staring us down. We went up the hill to allow them to pass on the trail below, but they weren’t interested in being so obliging. We retreated as the male started bounding towards us and then the llamas passed above us, near where we had been standing. The leader did a funny little hop dance as he passes, a kind of “thanks!” perhaps? Or maybe just a “don’t get in my way again.” Either way, the llama threat passed and we continued up to the top of the pass where we could see many lakes.

We descended and soon joined the Ingañan trail – an old Inca road…or so they say. To me, it looked like any other trail I’ve ever hiked on. Eh, can’t be picky I suppose.

We went east, following a stream that would soon become a river. For a while, we were hiking down right next to a series of waterfalls. The surrounding mountains were amazing. After an hour or so, we came to the valley where we would camp.

There were “Incan ruins” in the valley, though we didn’t even bother to take a picture. They were probably authentic, but just looked like someone had arranged stones in a square. Not to impressive when we’re off to Peru next.

The weather had been beautiful all day, but it started to pour as we set up our tent. While passing the afternoon playing cards, we collected a liter of water in our pots! It rained most of the night and the next morning.

In the morning, we packed up and headed east, along the same river as the day before. At the next lake, we had to go through a patch of cloud forest. The trail was crazy! At one point, while traversing a 2 inch rock ledge, Ben started cursing that we couldn’t possibly be on the trail because there’s no way they could take tourist groups through there! Once out and safe, we climbed up to another pass.

The descent down into the last valley was epic, to say the least. The trail description put the decent at 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on conditions. We definitely took more than 2 hours! It was a scramble down rock/mud trails of crazy steepness. In many places, a stream had taken over the trail and we were more in a stream bed then on a trail. It was intense, with many moments thinking, “Oh, if I fall I will probably either break my leg…or my back. This is awesome!”

After the trail leveled out in the valley, we passed through an amazing number of ecosystems, five or six in a half hour! At one point it seemed like we could be in the Amazon basin, at another I could have sworn I was in Sugarcreek Reserve back home in Bellbrook.

Right as we reached the ranger station, it started to pour. We tossed on the rain gear and started the hike back out to the road, about 2 km. A guy offered us a ride back to Cuenca in the back of his camionetta, but it was getting kind of chilly and a half hour in the back of a truck didn’t sound too appealing. We got to the main road right as it was getting dark, but busses to Cuenca pass on that road at least every 40 minutes so we weren’t worried. However, we started to worry when the first bus passed without stopping!

** Warning: Parents, please stop reading. All ends well, no need to worry. :) **

Hitchhiking is a common practice in Ecuador, but we’re still not super comfortable doing it. However, it was pretty much our only choice at that point, so we started trying to flag down a ride. After about 15 minutes, a truck came out of the road to the park and offered us a ride back to Cuenca. On the ride back, we found out he was a businessman and imported heavy machinery from the US. He lived in Cuenca but had a farm near the park. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, we were rescued from the cold and whisked back to civilization.