The Northwest is usually seen through a windscreen, and that is half the story. This loop from Salta follows the same roads as the classic self drive, over the Cuesta del Obispo, down the Ruta 40 to Cafayate and up into the Quebrada de Humahuaca, but every day leaves the car at a trailhead: a cloud-wrapped valley among condors, a river canyon with a waterfall to swim in, dunes at the edge of the vineyards, a gorge full of birds. Walks for every level, chosen and timed so they fit around the driving.
Day 1 · Salta
Highlight · The summit of Cerro San Bernardo above the colonial centre of Salta.
The car is collected on arrival, with maps and notes for the local roads. The afternoon is for the city: the colonial centre, seven blocks best seen on foot, the artisan market, the summit of Cerro San Bernardo, or the village of San Lorenzo in the green hills just outside.
Night · Salta
Day 2 · Valle Encantado and Cachi
Highlight · Rock art, foxes and condors between the clouds of Los Cardones.
Drive · 156 km · 3 h · last 20 km gravel
Walk · Valle Encantado · 14 km · 6 h
South out of Salta and up the Cuesta del Obispo on the Ruta 33. The walk is the big one of the trip: the Valle Encantado, at the entrance to the Los Cardones national park, between clouds and green slopes, with rock art, foxes, condors and, now and then, a puma. Then the Recta del Tin Tin, on the line of an old Inca road, down to Cachi.
Night · Cachi
Day 3 · Ruta 40 to Cafayate
Highlight · The lunar blades of the Quebrada de las Flechas, then the dunes of Los Médanos.
Drive · 160 km · 3 h 20
Walk · Los Médanos · 1 km · 1 h · easy
South on the Ruta 40: Colte and its poncho weavers, the church of Molinos, the lunar blades of the Quebrada de las Flechas. Cafayate comes around lunchtime, and the afternoon walk is through Los Médanos, a field of wind-sculpted dunes of 25 to 30 metres just east of town.
Night · Cafayate
Day 4 · Cafayate
Highlight · A ten-metre waterfall and its pool at the end of the Río Colorado scramble.
Walk · Río Colorado · 6 km · 5 h · demanding
Walk · Quebrada de Cafayate · 3.5 km · 2 h · easy
A day without driving. The demanding option follows the Río Colorado upstream on an unmarked path, with plenty of scrambling, to a ten-metre waterfall with a pool to swim in and rock paintings along the way, with people from the local Diaguita community ready to help. The gentle one wanders the Quebrada de Cafayate among carved, coloured rock. Or simply a winery and a tasting.
Night · Cafayate
Day 5 · Quebrada de las Conchas to Purmamarca
Highlight · The trail behind the Cerro de los Siete Colores at Purmamarca.
Drive · 385 km · 5 h 30 · paved
Walk · Los Colorados · 3 km · 1 h · easy
The longest day. Through the Quebrada de las Conchas, with stops at the Garganta del Diablo, the Anfiteatro, the Obelisco and Los Castillos, lunch in Salta, and north into the Quebrada de Humahuaca past Volcán and Tumbaya. In Purmamarca, Los Colorados: on sand and gravel behind the Cerro de los Siete Colores, best in the morning light.
Night · Purmamarca
Day 6 · Tilcara and back to Salta
Highlight · A fifteen-metre waterfall at the end of a terracotta canyon.
Drive · 228 km
Walk · Garganta del Diablo · 1.6 km · 1 h
26 km north to Tilcara, with its archaeological museum and the Pucará. The walk goes to the Garganta del Diablo, a fifteen-metre waterfall in a terracotta canyon, along ledges and natural steps, good for birdwatching. Then south again, with a stop facing the Paleta del Pintor at Maimará, back to Salta.
Night · Salta
Day 7 · Salta
Highlight · Salta once more, where the drive and the journey both end.
The car is returned before the flight out.
