Located near Monte Fitz Roy and the O'Higgins/San Martín Lake, Lago del Desierto was for many decades the subject of a territorial dispute between Argentina and Chile, escalating to a small firefight on 6 November 1965 when 40 to 90 members of the Argentine Gendarmerie fought against four Chilean Carabineros, of which a lieutenant was killed and a sergeant was injured.

From the northern Chilean end, nails hard travellers can walk or run from the Candelario Mancilla Border Crossing (approximately 30 km south of Villa O'Higgins) [citation needed] and down through the magical trail in the woods.

The valley is located between the Martínez de Rozas Range on the east and the eastern edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field on the west.

Chilean settler Vicente Ovando Vargas[3] began settling in the southern sector of the territory in association with the Scotsman Donald Mc Cloud, who exploited lands neighboring the Laguna del Cóndor.

In the 1930s, Father Alberto María de Agostini pointed out the settlement on the northern shore to the Chilean Ismael Sepúlveda and his wife Sara Cárdenas Torres.