Run your finger down a map to the far end of the Americas, and the final town you’ll encounter is Puerto Williams, a remote Chilean outpost on the Beagle Channel. Home to just 3,000 people — including scientists, naval officers, and Indigenous Yahgan fishermen — avid hikers know this place as the start of the southernmost trekking route on Earth.

The five-day Dientes Circuit around Navarino Island begins and ends in Puerto Williams, where feral horses and wayward cows roam windswept streets that hold a small collection of shops (mostly outdoor outfitters), lodgings (hostels and hotels), and restaurants serving king crab, the local specialty.

Of course, the real allure is above in the jagged pinnacles of the Dientes de Navarino mountain range. Here, intrepid hikers find dense forests of Nothofagus trees which lead, over the course of 33 miles, to peat bogs, lakes, and rugged alpine passes with views south toward Cape Horn, the last dot of land before Antarctica… (continue reading at National Geographic)