Which highway in Chile runs through Patagonia from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins?

The highway in Chile that runs through Patagonia from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins is the Carretera Austral, also known as Route 7.

The road stretches for roughly 1,240 kilometers through southern Chile, linking remote communities in the Los Lagos and Aysén regions. Its landscape includes fjords, temperate rainforests, glaciers, steep mountains, and large lakes. Because the route crosses sparsely populated terrain, it is as much an access corridor as a scenic touring road.

Construction began in 1976 during Chile's military dictatorship, largely to connect isolated settlements and strengthen the country's overland presence in the far south. The road opened to traffic in 1988; its final 100 kilometers to Villa O'Higgins opened in 2000. Much of the route remains rugged, and completing the journey requires ferry crossings because the road is interrupted by waterways.

A common mix-up is Ruta 40, the famous north-south highway on the Argentine side of Patagonia. Ruta 5 is Chile's principal longitudinal highway farther north, while Carretera Austral specifically identifies Chile's remote southern Route 7.