Atacama Desert Interior: Valle de la Luna, the Salar de Atacama, the Flamingo Lagoons, and the Pre-Andean Desert Landscape
The Atacama Desert interior route from Antofagasta covers Valle de la Luna as the most otherworldly single desert landscape in South America with its salt-and-clay formations eroded into the most lunar-like single terrain in the hemisphere, the Salar de Atacama as the largest single salt flat in Chile and the most lithium-rich single geological resource in the world, and the flamingo breeding lagoons as the most biologically unexpected single wildlife habitat in the hyperarid Atacama.
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Valle de la Luna: The Moon Valley
Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) within the Los Flamencos National Reserve 12 kilometers west of San Pedro de Atacama is the most visited single natural attraction in the Atacama Desert and the most visually compelling single geological landscape in South America, where millennia of wind and water erosion have sculpted the Cordillera de la Sal salt and clay formations into the most lunar-like single terrain surface on Earth. The sunset at Valle de la Luna, when the setting sun transforms the white salt crusts and orange clay ridges into the most incandescent single natural light display in the Atacama, is the most photographically celebrated single daily natural event in northern Chile.
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Salar de Atacama: The Lithium Flat
The Salar de Atacama, the 3,000-square-kilometer salt flat at 2,300 meters elevation 55 kilometers south of San Pedro de Atacama, is the largest single salt flat in Chile, the third-largest in the world, and the most lithium-rich single geological resource on Earth with reserves estimated at the largest single commercially viable lithium deposit in existence. The brine lithium extraction operations visible at the flat's southern edge, the flamingo feeding lagoons at the Chaxa and Puilar lagoons within the Los Flamencos reserve, and the mirror-flat salt surface with the Andes reflected in the brine create the most geologically and economically significant single landscape in the Atacama.
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Laguna Chaxa: The Flamingo Sanctuary
Laguna Chaxa within the Salar de Atacama at the Los Flamencos National Reserve is the most accessible single flamingo sanctuary in the Atacama Desert, hosting the most consistently visible single congregation of all three Chilean flamingo species (Chilean, Andean, and James's flamingo) in the most dramatically salt-flat-framed single wildlife viewing environment in South America. The lagoon's high salinity supporting the algae and brine shrimp that sustain the flamingo population, the white salt crust around the lagoon perimeter, and the perfectly reflected Andes in the brine surface create the most surreally beautiful single wildlife viewing site in northern Chile.
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Cordillera de la Sal: The Salt Mountain Range
The Cordillera de la Sal, the 100-kilometer mountain range of pure salt and gypsum stretching north of the Salar de Atacama with peaks reaching 2,500 meters, is the most geologically extraordinary single mountain range in Chile: an entire ridge composed of salt, clay, and evaporite minerals rather than the volcanic rock that dominates the surrounding Atacama landscape. The Valle de la Luna, the Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley), and the Quebrada del Diablo canyon within the Cordillera de la Sal create the most diverse single geological landscape in the Atacama and the most alien-appearing single natural environment accessible by paved road in the hemisphere.
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Atacama Desert Night Sky: The Cosmic Backdrop
The Atacama Desert night sky above the San Pedro de Atacama plateau at 2,400 meters elevation, with zero light pollution within 100 kilometers and 300+ clear nights per year in the most atmospheric-stable single desert in the world, provides the most spectacular single naked-eye astronomical experience available to the general public anywhere on Earth. The Southern Cross, the Milky Way core visible as a solid band of light, the Magellanic Clouds, and the planets in the most absolutely black single sky backdrop in the inhabited world create the most transformative single night-sky experience accessible from Antofagasta.
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Quebrada del Diablo: The Devil's Gorge
Quebrada del Diablo (Devil's Gorge) within the Cordillera de la Sal adjacent to Valle de la Luna is the most dramatically narrow single slot canyon in the Atacama Desert, cutting through the pure salt and gypsum formations in a series of the most tightly confined single canyon passages accessible on foot from San Pedro de Atacama. The canyon walls of pure white salt crystal, the sound of crumbling salt underfoot, and the total silence of the most isolated single canyon environment in the Norte Grande create the most physically immersive single geological experience in the Atacama and the most adventurous single half-day trek accessible from the Antofagasta-San Pedro tourist circuit.
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More in Antofagasta
Antofagasta Historic Center: Plaza Colón, the British Clocktower, the Portales Waterfront, and the Nitrate Era Architecture
Chuquicamata and Calama: The World's Largest Open-Pit Copper Mine, the Mining City, and the Atacama Industrial Heritage
Antofagasta Food Culture: Caleta Coloso Fishing Harbor, the Norte Grande Seafood Tradition, the Port City Market, and the Mining Camp Cuisine
Southern Antofagasta Region: Taltal Historic Port, Paposo Nature Reserve, the Coastal Desert Fog Zone, and the Atacama Southern Wilderness
Paranal Observatory: The VLT, the World's Most Powerful Optical Telescope, the Residencia, and the E-ELT Construction Site
