Fog forest
On the hilltops.
Ansay27 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Germano1982 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Germano1982 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nicolás Fernando Valdés Ortega — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Germano1982 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Bosque Fray Jorge National Park lies in Limarí Province in the Coquimbo Region on the Pacific coast, about 47 km in a straight line west of the town of Ovalle and about 100 km south of La Serena. It is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, bordered to the south by the Limarí River. The park covers about 100 square kilometres, but forest covers only 4 per cent of it, the northernmost Valdivian temperate rainforest in Chile. This green pocket lives on sea fog, the camanchaca, which clings to the slopes of the coastal Talinay range and moistens the plants, although annual rainfall around it is only about 113 mm. It is a relic of the last ice age. A road climbs through semi-arid scrub and cactus, where guanacos graze, to a boardwalk that enters the forest on the hilltops. There, trees draped in moss and lichen drip in the fog, fungi grow on the trunks, and from the edge a sea of clouds spreads over the ocean. An entry fee applies; check opening days and hours before you go. The fog is thickest in the morning, and the boardwalk can be slippery.
On the hilltops.
Through the forest.
On the plains.
Limarí Province, Coquimbo Region, Chile
On sea fog that moistens the slopes.
Check opening days and hours before you go.