I began dreaming about a trip to Patagonia after we visited the Atacama desert in Chile in 2013. That experience sparked my interest in nature travel.

I used “Patagonia” as the shorthand for where I wanted to go, but it was Torres del Paine that I had in mind. This Chilean national park is famed for its natural beauty and challenging hikes, and it did not disappoint.

The fun started as our bus rounded a curve and we came upon Sarmiento Lake. The electric blue was a color I’d never seen in a lake before, and we had been pretty wowed by lakes in New Zealand.

At the park entrance we were greeted with the famed Patagonian winds. They probably hit 60 mph when we stopped for a few quick photos. Carlos, our guide, pointed out that cars need to park in a certain way or the car doors could be blown right off. Glad we weren’t in charge of parking!

The drive through the park to our hotel, which was just outside of the park, continued to be breathtaking. Although the mountain tops were obscured by clouds, the sun was shining, and the lakes and rivers exhibited more startling shades of blue, green and gray.

Torres del Paine means “towers of blue,” and it perfectly describes the stunning blue colors of the sky, the granite of the mountains, the glaciers and glacial lakes. Although our hotel was located a short drive outside of the park we had a perfect view of the famous three spires rising from the Paine Massif, and we were treated to a spectacular sunset on our first night.

Our one full day included two very different hikes. Although the park is famed for its challenging terrain our hikes were definitely geared toward the average person, not the expert hiker.

The first was a walk under sunny skies along gentle, rolling hills that took us past the Salto Grande waterfall, numerous varieties of plants and eventually to Lake Nordenskjold. Even on this easily accessible hike we couldn’t stop taking pictures. One feature that was especially photogenic, though sad, were the many trees that had been burned in a fire in 2012. Careless campers started the fire that dramatically affected the environment.

I was feeling a bit disappointed that the hike wasn’t more challenging, but after lunch we went on hike number two around the banks of Grey Lake, a scenic lake fed by the Grey glacier. Here we were met by the forceful winds again, and just walking the flat beach covered in glacial moraine was a challenge. The highlight was climbing a steep hill right near the banks of the lake to get a great view of the glacier. It’s then that I started to imagine what it could be like doing some of the difficult, iconic hikes.

After finally getting a good workout we actually used the hotel’s pool and sauna before joining our group for dinner. We were lucky enough to see another mountain sunset, this time the massif looked like it was on fire.

The title of this post comes from the same saying from my dad. “It’s so beautiful it looks fake” was his highest compliment. Torres del Paine certainly earns the moniker.