Alerce Costero National Park, National park in Los Ríos Region, Chile.
Alerce Costero National Park is a protected area in the Coastal Range of the Los Ríos Region, within Ranco Province in southern Chile. The park covers a temperate rainforest dominated by Fitzroya trees of exceptional age and size, crossed by a network of marked walking trails.
The area was first protected as a National Monument in 1987, then reclassified as a National Park in 2010. This upgrade came after decades of logging had significantly reduced Fitzroya forests across southern Chile.
The park's name comes from the alerce, the local word for Fitzroya cupressoides, a slow-growing conifer whose reddish bark peels in thin strips. The species is a Chilean natural monument, and the park protects one of its main coastal stands. The 1,800-metre Alerce Milenario trail leads to a specimen estimated at 3,000 years old and 4.5 metres wide.
The park is accessible via route T-80 from La Unión, and the trails are marked for different fitness levels. Since the forest stays wet year-round, waterproof footwear and a rain layer are worth bringing regardless of the season.
The genus Fitzroya honours Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin to South America. The park's best-known specimen, the Alerce Milenario, is a Fitzroya about 4.5 metres wide that the 1,800-metre trail of the same name leads to.
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