Our Year of Wonder: Santa Cruz Trail

Our next adventure was to the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, west of Huaraz, Peru which is about 400 km north of Lima. We had a four day guided hike up a valley, over a pass, and down the valley on the other side.

We started with a 10 hour bus ride from Lima to Huaraz which was about the opposite of the jungle. As we got out of Lima, the terrain got dry and more desolate. Though, as we got closer to Huaraz, we entered mountains and mountain roads again. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up on this bus for 10 hours with no food or water provided, and we had taken little with us having been told that it would be provided. We arrived both exhausted but also feeling quite unwell due to the mountain roads on very empty tummies.

Day 1

Thankfully up in the mountain areas, there was a bit more vegetation. The trail we hiked was called the Santa Cruz trail and even though we hiked up a valley which on the map shows that it is next to Santa Cruz mountain, we really didn’t get to see Santa Cruz much because the foot hills blocked the view. We actually couldn’t see it until day 3 when looking back the way we came. Thankfully there were lots of other mountains to see. Since we had to drive in the morning for 3 hours from Huaraz to the trail head, our first day was only a short 10 km hike up 700 meters to the first camp site.

Day 2

This was our toughest day. It started off of on the wrong foot with our guide sending us off on our own while he helped pack-up the campsite and our group followed the “only” trail to the wrong side of the river and needing to back track 20 minutes. Around lunch time it started to cloud over and we couldn’t see the mountains as well. This is also the time when we took a two hour tangent off the main trail to go up and see a glacier lake. It started to spit on the way there and then rained hard with wind the whole way back and until we made it to camp. Everything was damp and wet including the sleeping mats and sleeping bags. The temperature was around 6 C (43 F) and it got colder as the night progressed, as we were at our highest sleeping altitude of this trek – 4200 metres.

Supposedly in the picture on the left, above the foothills above our head is Artesonraju mountain which inspired the latest Paramount Pictures logo. All we could see was cloud but fortunately we could see Artesonraju better the next day.

Laguna Arhuaycocha reminded us a lot of Moraine Lake in Alberta and we are sure it would have been an “Oh Wow” view if it hadn’t been rainy and cloudy. We could only see just the bottom of the glacier.

Still beauty to find in the details of creation. Some of the landscapes felt like it could have been a scene out of Middle Earth.

Day 3

Sleep was in very short supply that night between the temperature, all the wet gear and clothes, the barely there mattress pads and the four stray dogs who decided to travel with us barking through the night. It was a tough morning as we were exhausted and miserable and our fingers were too cold to work properly to do up packs and such. We heard the first “I wish we were home” statement from somebody since we started this trip. Thankfully Day 3 started off with clearer weather, higher clouds, and we even got some sunshine to warm us up and dry us off as the morning went on. It was truly spectacular to wake up to this view, even though we were still cold and wet.

Mimicking the video, sweeping views from our campsite: first Artesonraju mountain (Paramount) from the side.

Looking down the valley we came up with Alpamayo mountain as the white peak in the center, Quitaraju mountain to the left in the clouds, and Santa Cruz mountain just barely visible behind Quitaraju.

Our campsite looking the opposite direction up towards Taulliraju mountain with Punta Union pass to the right of it (the pass we would be hiking to that day). Rinrijirca mountain is on the left and is the mountain we couldn’t see much on day 2 and which feeds into Laguna Arhuaycocha.

What saved us on day 3 from the misery of day 2 afternoon and evening was a sunny day, baggies to put over our last pair of dry socks before putting our feet into our still wet shoes, and a steep hike to get the blood flowing.

Some beautiful tundra flowers and a soaring condor.

Some amazing views of Taulliraju mountain and the small laguna below it.

Punta Union, our highest point – 4750 metres.

Down the backside of the pass.

Looking back towards Taulliraju mountain and Punta Union pass. The pass is the little dip about 1/4 of the way from the left with the boulder next to it.

Between the spring run off and the rain the day before, a lot of our paths were a bit muddy and water logged. Made for a bit of a challenging hike. We also had to walk on a ton of rocks – both to dodge water and just because that’s what the trail was made of. The bottom of our feet we were so sore by the end of this day!

We were surprised how many free range cattle there were up in the mountain valleys and passes. There was quite a few biological landmines to dodge during the hike. The valleys were lush though and pretty to walk through (on a sunny day)!

Looking back at Taulliraju mountain close to the end of the day. We started to the left of it. Overall we hiked about 50 km on this trail.

Day 4

Our last day was a shorter hike, taking place only in the morning. We only had about 1 -2 hr hike to get out of the park and then we were walking paths and roads through various farms and villages to get to our tour pick-up village. The views didn’t stop with the hike though. We had an amazing drive up over a mountain pass with an incredible amount of switch backs to get back to Huaraz.