Rangers house and officially marked camping spot | Informal Campsite

We thought the end of the ruta 40 was the red lighthouse, it’s not, it’s the black one.
You have to turn left right at the entrance :)

We went all the way to the oil refinery and the workers showed us the way. They even took us to the designated camping spot.
It’s right after you come down the hill after you enter, there’s a building to your right. A few meters before it, there’s this road that goes down and that’s the spot.
It’s a bit shielded from wind and it has a pipe with water. No facilities ofc.

The ranger’s house road was closed so we didn’t even try.

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A little bit of history: when we arrived at the end of the day on the site, we asked the guardaparques if we could pitch the tent in the zone indicated by the sign: no more possible according to them, completely protected zone. Not possible either to stay near their building. They advised us to leave the park and to go to the "prefectura". Being on foot we preferred to protect ourselves from the wind behind the confiteria near the lighthouse. In fact this store is inhabited and the lady believed in a burglary (there are greedy people ready to make 130km without doubt!). At midnight the lady alerted the real owners of the place (who own the military zone, the lighthouse and the nature reserve) who asked us very cordially (with apologies even) to leave the place and went to discuss with the guardaparques who "are not doing their job". They explained to us that it is not allowed to camp in the prefectura and that they were going to dislodge 5 other tents that had settled there.

Finally the guardaparques installed us... next to their building!

The next day they kindly invited us to lunch and explained to us that the rules had changed since the covid and that the chief of the pinguinera forbade any camping. They then removed the camping sign and told us that we would probably be the last ones to spend the night here...

Morality, nobody seems to agree and it is the campers who pay for it.

In my opinion, if you want to camp, go discreetly in the only small valley protected from the wind, below the road on the right at the junction between the lighthouse road and the penguins road (at the sign "consejo agrario provincial"). The guardaparques seem to me to stay rather in their building or the pinguinera.

Note that the people who were in a van next to us could spend the night at the lighthouse without any problem. So the place seems ok if you are in a van!

Un peu d'histoire : en arrivant en fin de journée sur le site on a demandé aux guardaparques si l'on pouvait planté la tente dans la zone indiquée par le panneau : plus possible selon eux, zone intégralement protégée. Pas possible non plus de rester à proximité de leur bâtiment. Ils nous ont conseillé de quitter le parc et d'aller s'installer à la "prefectura". Etant à pied on a préféré se protéger du vent derrière la confiteria près du phare. En fait ce magasin est habité et la dame a cru à un cambriolage (il y a des gourmands prêt à faire 130km sans doute !). A minuit la dame a alerté les véritables propriétaires des lieux (possédant zone militaire, phare et réserve naturelle) qui nous ont très cordialement (avec des excuses même) demandé de quitter les lieux et sont allés discuté avec les guardaparques qui "ne font pas leur travail". Ils nous ont expliqué qu'il n'est pas non plus autorisé de camper à la prefectura et qu'ils allaient déloger 5 autres tentes qui s'y étaient installées.

Finalement les guardaparques nous ont installés... à côté de leur bâtiment !

Le lendemain ils nous ont gentiment invité à déjeuner et nous ont expliqué que les règles ont changé depuis le covid et que la chef de la pinguinera interdit tout campement. Dans la foulée ils ont retiré le panneau de camping et nous ont dit qu'on serait sans doute les derniers à avoir pu passer la nuit ici...

Moralité, personne ne semble d'accord et ce sont les campeurs qui en font les frais.

A mon avis, si vous voulez camper, allez discrètement dans la seule petite vallée protégée du vent, en contrebas de la route sur la droite à l'embranchement entre route du phare et route des pingouins (au panneau "consejo agrario provincial"). Les guardaparques me semblent plutôt rester dans leur bâtiment ou la pinguinera.

A noter que les personnes qui étaient en van à côté de nous ont pu passer la nuit au phare sans problème. Le lieu semble donc ok si vous êtes en van !

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Nobody there,even the ranger so, no facilities. Spent a night next to the house to get some wind protection.

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Very nice and save place. Sign to the right about 50 meter before the Ranger house. 200 meter way to the end of the way in a valley.

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Camping is not allowed inside of the penguin area. The rangers let us camped near their house. We used their facilities like a toilet, table and chair. And Wifi password is ssservicios Enjoy😉

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The rangers told us to park here to spend the night. They opened the office next to their house to let us use the toilets. It would have been possible to put a tent inside.

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We decided to camp here after visiting the penguins. The Ranger explained to us where it was and it's basically the second little track after the yellow Rangers station (heading away from the penguin park) with a small camping symbol at the start. Windy however we used our two motorbikes as a bit of a wind break and between 11pm and 8am the wind dies down a lot. We have a cheap, Chinese tent and it survived. Lots of birds, and a couple of Armadilo burrows about. One came to have a look at us in the morning for a while. Very quiet at night. We felt it was a better option than the two campsites marked in Rio Gallegos that didn't sound that great. We really enjoyed it here despite the wind. There is some water available but we're advised it needs boiling/filtering. The Ranger said he would be in the house if we needed anything and there is a toilet at the Penguin Park entrance building. Probably not great if it's a really strong windy day. Check it out and decide.

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The road from el condor tot here is in pretty bad condition. But the campsite is ok. Spring water, green gras. Fox, skunk and amardillo. Helikopters flying tot the offshore oil platforms. Friendly ranger.

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We were allowed to sleep in the front of the yellow house by the ranger, who is a really nice guy.
A little windy but ok.
Very nice sunset.

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They are in process of renovating the interpretative center and they will have bed(we saw them just stacked in a corner) so once its finished there will be the possibility to sleep inside.

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Good spot if you came to see the penguins and don't want to drive back today. Quite windy but possible to find enough protection in a campervan. In a tent, I would say it's challenging. We've seen some campers abandoning. Has a garbage bin and spring water (Ranger told us it was never tested so boil it before drinking). A fox paid us a visit a dinner time, looking for his own dinner which he found in the bush 😀.

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These are the correct gps coordination for a "camping spot" in front of rangers house as described and required by map of protected area.

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