This Lodge in Chilean Patagonia Is the Most Off-grid Trip I've Ever Taken-With Valleys Home to More Sheep Than People

"As the helicopter dipped down around a mountain peak in the Andes, we started following the serpent-shaped clouds hovering over the Rio Palena, a river carving through its namesake valley. It was our second attempt in two days to reach Sasha's Last Dance, a 6,000-foot-high glacier that's about a 15-minute flight from Eleven Rio Palena Lodge in Los Lagos, Chile."

""These valleys all have different behaviors," said Pablo, adding that he'd give the clouds another minute. "We'll go to those trees and see what happens." Waterfalls flowed like veins through the mountains as we slowly approached, but the clouds were too low, too concentrated, appearing almost like smoke from a volcano, so we pulled back and returned to Rio Palena Lodge."

"When we got back, the drizzle was so faint, I took a walk along the banks of the river, which comes right up to the property. Apart from a sole fishing boat, I was entirely alone. A raft-like ferry connecting the two banks is the main access to this area of the Chilean Lake District, but I only saw it once during my five-day stay at the lodge."

A helicopter approached a mountain peak in the Andes following serpent-shaped clouds over the Rio Palena valley. A second attempt to reach Sasha's Last Dance, a 6,000-foot glacier about a 15-minute flight from Eleven Rio Palena Lodge in Los Lagos, Chile, was made amid light rain. The single-engine AStar helicopter, painted with beetles and a dragonfly, circled while pilot Pablo assessed cloud behavior and aimed toward nearby trees. Low, concentrated clouds resembling volcanic smoke prevented landing, forcing a return to the lodge. A faint drizzle allowed a solitary riverside walk; a raft-like ferry provides main access to the remote Chilean Lake District. Patagonia required nearly 24 hours of travel and includes Chilean glacial fjords and Valdivian rainforest.

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