Cushamen Department can be explored through its striking contrasts: Patagonian steppe, a lake with clear water, paths through a labyrinth and a wind-sheltered rocky landscape. When planning your trip, consider which landscape and experience you would like to focus on. Lake Epuyén, Piedra Parada and the offerings in El Hoyo each provide a different perspective.
Lakes and Steppe
Lake Epuyén is Epuyén’s main attraction. It is located in Parque Municipal Puerto Bonito and Reserva Forestal de Usos Múltiples Lago Epuyén. Its water is warm and clear, with an average temperature of 15 °C. At this destination, the lake itself takes center stage—a focus in its own right alongside the steppe and rock formations at Piedra Parada.
The Piedra Parada Protected Natural Area covers 132 hectares of Patagonian steppe and lies between the departments of Languiñeo and Cushamen. The protected area preserves geological, paleontological and archaeological features. Research and monitoring are among its purposes, as is public use. This landscape therefore combines a natural setting with a conservation mandate that goes beyond visiting individual natural features.
Explore the Trails and Landscape
Piedra Parada is ideal for trekking and mountain biking. At the entrance to the area, a three-kilometer trail leads into Cañadón de la Buitrera. This rocky pass, sheltered from the wind, is defined by rock walls more than 100 meters high. The trail’s length and the walls’ striking height describe two different aspects of the experience: the route into the canyon and the scale of its rocky landscape.
Laberinto Patagonia in El Hoyo offers a different way to experience a trail: the labyrinth has 2,200 meters of paths and nine entrances. Its five hectares of parkland and native forest offer wide-ranging views; visitors can spend the day there and walk through the labyrinth to its center and exit. In the Catarata Corbata Blanca Provincial Reserve, an 850-meter trail runs alongside a stream. These distances therefore relate to different types of visits: a waterside path, a network of paths through the labyrinth, and a route into a rocky pass.
El Hoyo: Local Produce and an Annual Festival
In El Hoyo, you can visit farms where raspberries, strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and currants are grown and offered for tasting. Laberinto Patagonia adds to this local food experience with a tea house serving local and seasonal products, as well as produce from its own organic garden. In the same town, visitors can enjoy both farm visits with tastings and a tea house as distinct culinary stops.
Another reason to visit is the Fiesta de la Fruta Fina in El Hoyo. It takes place every year on the second weekend of January and was first held in 1986. If you plan your trip around the festival, check the dates for that year. This helps distinguish the annual schedule from the specific dates of an individual edition.
Accommodation and Choosing Your Trip’s Focus
If these areas are important to your plans, you can include Lago Puelo when searching for hotels and accommodation. You can also choose your destination based on your interests: the lake, the trails and rock formations, or the visits and local produce in El Hoyo. This way, your search starts with the kind of trip you want, rather than treating all the places as interchangeable destinations.
Discover more destinations: Hoyo De Epuyén, Leleque, El Maitén, Lago Puelo, Gualjaina, Golondrinas, Epuyén, Gaiman Department.
See the broader travel overview: Chubut.
