Cajas National Park

This morning, we took a taxi up to the Caja National Park where the topography is considered the tundra.  Upon arrival at the first ranger station, we signed in and began a two hour hike around the Toreadora Lagoon.  A bit more than half way, and a bit more than an hour into our hike, the path became a bit confusing with poor markings.  We reached a break in the trail with a sign indicating that if we wanted the pink trail, to turn right.  We knew we did not want this trail.  We moved forward a bit and found another sign indicating the green trail, a four hour hike from that point, and noted as being "difficult".  

Several folks that we have met over the past few days who have hiked in El Caja, indicated poorly marked trails and several indicated that at times they were lost.  One young woman shared with us this morning at breakfast that she had intended to complete the 3-hour pink trail with her parents two days ago, became lost and 6 hours later they emerged at the road leading to El Caja.

Given this, and with no clear markings for the Laguna Toreadora trail, we decided to turn back to our starting point.  So, while we did not succeed in hiking around the entire lagoon, we did get the full 2-hour hike in at a very high altitude, and did have a great time.  The hike was not difficult per se, but there were enough inclines and declines over rocks and wetland and creeks to make it a bit of a challenge for our level of expertise, and yet, remain enjoyable at the same time.

Upon our return to the ranger station, we explained where we went and when and why we turned around.  We were told that had we followed the green trail (4 hour hike and difficult markings) we would have come to a split in the path that we could have taken to the left and continued around the lagoon. Uh.... Better markings would have been a god idea.  But, we will know for the next time.   Great day!