The Torres del Paine National Park is one of the largest and most important national parks in Chile, and a protected wilderness area. In 2006, it occupied an area of 242 242 ha, approximately. It is the third with the most visits, of which about 75% corresponds to foreign tourists, especially Europeans. It is located 112 km North of Puerto Natales and 312 of the city of Punta Arenas.
It is one of eleven protected areas in Magallanes Region and Chilean Antarctica (along with four other national parks, three national reserves and three national monuments).
Altogether, the protected wild areas cover 51% of the surface of the region (6,728,744 ha). It limits to the North with The Glaciers National Park in Argentina.
Presents a great variety of natural environments: mountains (among which stand out the Paine hill complex -whose main summit reaches 3050 meters above Sea level- the Torres del Paine and the Paine horns), valleys, rivers (such as the Paine River), lakes (highlighting those known as Gray, Pehoé, Nordenskjöld and Sarmiento), Gray, Pingo, Tyndall and Geikie Glaciers, belonging to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field).
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