El Carmen to Taquil - Salta, Argentina

Dogs Off-leash

Features River/Creek · Views · Wildlife

Contact Finca El Carmen and Bodega Colome ahead of time for lodging alternatives. There are many camping spots along the essentially deserted route. There is one small subsistence farm about half-way where one can obtain water (to filter) upon request of the squatter living there.

El Carmen is a 400-year-old outpost along Argentina's Ruta 40 in Salta Province. Facing shear walls to the east the Finca is a small hotel, museum, restaurant and all around good place to stop however you are traveling.

This trail departs from the road and heads up a broad wash to the west. Climbing gently up through a pass flanked by 10 and 11 thousand tall foothills of the Andes. Past the pass and down the hill there is a section on dirt road - but in this area "road" is a suggestive not definitive term - and dry creek bed.

The final mile or so rises abruptly over a small pass where the drop from the narrow road is several hundred feet. Cresting this section displays a green valley fed by a mountain stream with the final destination of Bodega Taquil sitting in the midst of vineyards.

Up to the first pass there is little sign of life in this high alpine desert. Across the range there are a variety of difficult to see but none-the-less existent animals and birds.