Parque Patagonia, Argentina

We went on two short hikes during our stay in the desert. The first day we combined several trails that the hotel told us about. The first part was along the top of the Pinturas River canyon, and had spectacular views. As we started down the dusty trail, it looked like the ground was moving!

There were thousands of massive grasshoppers doing their thing…

These were easily the length and thickness of your thumb! For the next video, you don’t need the sound on - it’s only wind blowing. (remember to open this email in your browser)

This was the country we were hiking in…

… and we even had a welcoming committee to start!

Everything was very dry and rugged…

… but there would be sudden patches of green and color -

Rounding a corner, though, revealed the Pinturas River valley…

… and further on, we could see Cueva de Los Manos that we had visited the previous day -

(see the path and boardwalks under the rock overhang on the left?)

I thought these formations were neat, with both their vertical, as well as horizontal lines -

Another big fella to point out the way -

Another cool view of the contrasts we saw -

Along the trail would be sudden pops of color…

… and then even a double -

We were surprised that this was the only reptile we saw -

Ok, so much for that hike -

The second hike we did was through the colored hills we had seen from the highway as we drove in -

Guanacos were ever present (just not very numerous) -

When the sun was out…

… the colors really shone, but I also liked them against dark skies and the hills in the distance -

Very neat folds of color…

… which looked even better when seen from the mirador on top, and lit by the sun -

Now, pulling back to see the bigger picture -

I decided to close with this picture because of the lighting and color -