Cotopaxi National Park

The park, about 2 hours south of Quito, contains the Cotopaxi Volcano (19,347').  All national parks in Ecuador have free admission.  Cotopaxi last erupted in 2015.

I stayed at the very rustic Tambopaxi Lodge, which is about 12,500'.   The landscape is a treeless tundra and pradera (grassland), very stark, other-worldly, and foggy the entire time I was there.  I could only catch occasional glimpses of the volcano, even though it was very close.

I made a half-hearted attempt to climb a 15k foot peak, and got within a mile, but it was too foggy.