For Patagonia travelers, arrow-straight RN 3 is the quickest ticket south, but visitors with their own wheels—whether two or four—should explore coastal Chubut’s dusty back roads.

It’s common enough to rent a car for Península Valdés, where a bicycle is awkward because camping is prohibited, but the loop from Rawson south to Punta Tombo and Camarones, returning via RN 3, is an intriguing alternative for automobiles, motorbikes, and bicycles.

Along southbound RP 1, the big attraction is Punta Tombo’s penguins, but most visitors see them on a tour. Rather than returning to Puerto Madryn or Trelew, the self-propelled can get an estanciero’s view of the thinly settled area by following the dusty, narrow, but smooth gravel road south past desolate Cabo Raso, with its steep gravel beach, and on to picturesque Camarones.

From Camarones, the provincial wildlife reserve at Cabo Dos Bahías makes an ideal excursion before returning to RN 3 via a paved lateral and heading back north—perhaps for tea in Gaiman—or continuing south toward Bahía Bustamante, the kelp-gathering community that’s part of the new Parque Nacional Patagonia Austral along the Atlantic shoreline, and Comodoro Rivadavia. With an early start, the Punta Tombo-Camarones-Gaiman circuit could be a day trip, but an overnight in Camarones is a better option.