Torres Del Paine (Patagonia continued and engagement hike!!!)

After spending a week in Ushuaia, we crossed the border into the Chilean side of Patagonia. Our main destination was Torres Del Paine National Park. We decided to go on a 70 mile  trail that circles the Torres Del Paine mountain range before going up the mountains and valleys. The hardest part for us was figuring out food to bring for 7 days that would provide us with enough calories but not weigh our packs down too much. This resulted in 7 days of oatmeal and pasta along with snacks.Yummy.

Making breakfast the morning before going to the Park.

TORRES DEL PAINE!!!! Such a clear view of where we spent 7 days playing among the mountains!

A nice looking sign of some of the trails and campsites that we stayed at. The trail signs and map had conflicting distances so that made for some frustrating calculations during the hike.

This is the first day of the hike. We got very lucky with the weather and the views that we had this day.

We realized that our trekking poles double as a mono pod for taking pictures of ourselves!!

Colleen among an endless field of daisey's.

This hawk along with 4 others was at our first campsite begging for food, and posing for great pictures

So many beautiful colors!

Lunch and stretching break before going over the pass.

The trail was a little treacherous at times. Lots of log balancing to avoid muddy bogs. 

The view from on top of the pass! This glacier is called Grey Glacier it is 30km long and that is the Andes mountain range in the background!

This is the the top of John Gardner Pass where I proposed to Colleen! The winds were blowing at 60 mph  and it was freezing, she didn't understand why I wanted to hang out up there. I distracted her with the view and when she turned back around I was down on one knee holding out the ring. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen was her saying yes.

Another view of Grey Glacier.

Heading down the pass after a long but very exciting day!

One of many river crossings in the rain throughout the hike.

Grey Lake full of ice bergs from Grey Glacier.

One of the best parts of the hike is all the water is fresh glacier water.  No need for a water filter, iodine, or even a water bottle. Just stick your face in and drink up!

This is in the French Valley, one of the day hikes that we did. On this day we hiked 18 miles, our legs were toast!

We were fortunate enough to see 3 avalanches coming down this mountain from different parts of the glacier falling off.

The scenery was constantly changing throughout the hike from mountains and glaciers to thick forests.

A nice lunch on Lago Nordenskjold. Some of the first sunshine we had seen in a few days. We took advantage of this opportunity to dry out all of our stuff and soak up some rays. 

On our last day of the trek we were going to wake up early and hike to the base of the torres (towers) which the park is named after. Due to heavy rain we had to delay this triumphant finish until mid morning. Once we got up there the towers were covered in clouds but we did find this rainbow waiting for us!

We made it! This is the longest hike either of us has done! Woo!