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Lauca National Park lies in the northernmost Chilean Andes, in the commune of Putre in the Arica y Parinacota Region, along the border with Bolivia. It covers 137,883 hectares of the Altiplano and the surrounding mountains, and borders Bolivia's Sajama National Park. Together with Las Vicuñas National Reserve and the Salar de Surire Natural Monument, it forms the Lauca Biosphere Reserve. The landscape is part of the Central Andean dry puna.

Morro Moreno National Park occupies the southern end of the Mejillones Peninsula, in the Coastal Range of Chile's Antofagasta Region, in the communes of Antofagasta and Mejillones, and covers about 7,300 hectares. The peninsula it sits on is wider than it is long, reaching only about 20 km into the Pacific, and in the driest desert on Earth, the park's massif is where coastal fog, known as camanchaca, sustains an island of life.

Radal Siete Tazas National Park, in Chile's Maule Region, protects the Claro River's seven basalt pools and waterfalls, carved into ancient lava flows from volcanic activity in the area. The park's upper basin also marks an ecological transition between the drought-tolerant Mediterranean vegetation of central Chile and the moist evergreen forests farther south, creating a distinctive mix of plant and animal life.

Salar del Huasco National Park protects a high-Andean wetland that lies in the commune of Pica, in the Tarapacá Region of northern Chile, at about 3,800 m on the altiplano. The park covers the whole basin of the salar, about 1,500 sq km of steppe, bofedal wetlands, and shallow lagoons that Chile's environment ministry has described as one of the most pristine wetlands in the altiplano and an important water reserve in the driest desert on Earth.

Volcán Isluga National Park lies in the Andes of northern Chile's Tarapacá Region, in the Tarapacá altiplano, and protects about 175,000 hectares of high puna around a sacred Aymara volcano, one of the world's highest geyser fields, and an 18th-century church that remains the ceremonial heart of Aymara life. Its landscape of volcanoes, lagoons, and bunchgrass steppe is the Central Andean dry puna.

Tolhuaca National Park lies in the Andean foothills of the Araucanía Region, in the commune of Curacautín, about 140 km from Temuco. It covers 6,374 hectares of araucaria and southern beech forest, lakes, and waterfalls, and is reached via a gravel road from Curacautín. The name Tolhuaca is Mapudungun and is usually translated as "cow's brow" or "cow's forehead," a reference to the shape of the volcano that dominates its skyline.

Nahuelbuta National Park lies in the Nahuelbuta Range, part of the Chilean Coastal Range, between the communes of Angol and Purén in the Araucanía Region. The park covers about 6,800 hectares and is accessible by road from Angol and Cañete on the coast. Its forests reach about 1,400 m, and the monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana), a conifer usually associated with the high Andes, survives here in an isolated stand near the Pacific.

The Valdivian Coastal Reserve lies in the Cordillera Pelada of Chile's Los Ríos Region, in the communes of Corral and La Unión, about 40 km southwest of Valdivia. It covers roughly 50,000 hectares and 36 km of Pacific coastline, and is a private reserve owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Together with the adjoining Alerce Costero National Park, it protects more than 60,000 hectares of the Valdivian temperate forests.

Alerce Costero National Park, in Chile's Cordillera Pelada, protects forests of the endangered alerce, or Patagonian cypress, including the Gran Abuelo, a tree at least 3,600 years old and possibly far older. It adjoins the much larger Valdivian Coastal Reserve, a private reserve owned by The Nature Conservancy that is the largest protected area in the Chilean Coastal Range. As a result, the park forms one core of a large protected stretch of the Valdivian temperate forests.

The Chilean Coastal Range and Central Valley form two distinctive features that run parallel along Chile's length, shaping its climate, agriculture, and urban life. The Coastal Range rises as a barrier between the Pacific Ocean and the interior, while the Central Valley lies between these coastal mountains and the Andes, forming Chile's fertile and populated corridor. Together with the Andes, they record the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath South America, and they define where rain falls, where forests grow, where crops flourish, and where cities rise.