A short drive from town, the Valle de la Luna sits within the Cordillera de la Sal, a mountain range shaped over millions of years as an ancient lakebed was slowly uplifted by tectonic movement and then sculpted by wind, sun, and rare rain into a landscape that has drawn comparisons to the lunar surface since at least the mid-20th century. The road through the reserve runs in a single line to a dead end and back, with each stop along the way built up from millions of years of salt, gypsum, and clay.
Duna Mayor, the great dune that gives the first stop its name, offers a wide panoramic view across the whole valley toward the Cordillera de la Sal — the light here shifts constantly through the afternoon, the rock turning from reddish to violet to grey as the sun drops. Further along, Achaches presents two strikingly white mineral outcrops from a mirador on the opposite side of the valley, a different angle on the same folded, salt-streaked terrain. The road continues past the remains of the old Mina Victoria, a 20th-century salt-extraction operation whose disused machinery still sits where it was abandoned, before reaching Las Tres Marías at the end of the line — three upright rock formations shaped by wind, water, and the salt embedded in the stone, said by some to resemble three women in different postures. The formations are fenced off at close range now, following past incidents of damage, but they remain the most photographed single feature of the reserve.
Deleting this waypoint is permanent and cannot be undone.