PARQUE NACIONAL SIERRA DE LAS QUIJADAS

Evoking the red sandstone ravines of Utah’s Bryce Canyon, Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas is rich in scenery, fossils, and pre-Columbian archaeological sites. In Lower Cretaceous times, about 120 million years ago, pterosaurs and their contemporaries left tracks in a lush subtropical wetland that has since become a jumble of barren cliffs, cornices, terraces, and dried-up lakebeds. Far later, the Huarpe and their predecessors left evidence of their camps and settlements.

Comprising 150,000 hectares in northwestern San Luis Province, the park is the site of ongoing paleontological research by Universidad Nacional de San Luis and New York’s Museum of Natural History, as well as excavations of early Huarpe sites. It’s open all year, but the mild spring and autumn months are the best times to visit; in the suffocatingly hot summer, thunderstorms can cause dangerous flash floods.

Las Quijadas is about 120 kilometers northwest of San Luis via paved RN 147 and a signed six-kilometer westbound gravel lateral. Most of the enormous park, though, is accessible only on foot or horseback.

back to top

Flora and Fauna
When the pterosaurs roamed here, Las Quijadas was a most-level marshland, but climate changes over the last hundred million years have left it a desert where summer temperatures often exceed 40° C, and plants and animals have adapted to this regime. Typical of the flora is the endemic chica (Ramarinoa girolae), a small, slow-growing tree whose hard, dense wood forms a twisted trunk. Truncated shrubs like the jarilla and several species of cacti are also typical.

The most notable mammals are the collared peccary, guanaco, puma, and red fox, while the endangered Argentine land turtle is also present here. Peregrine falcons and other raptors dive for small prey.

back to top

Sights and Activities
Las Quijadas’s most unforgettable sight is the natural amphitheater of Potrero de la Aguada, where the last 25 million years of runoff—from precipitation that now averages only about 300 millimeters per annum—has eroded ancient sediments to expose the bright sandstone beds and conglomerates to the west. An easy trail follows the Aguada’s rim toward the south for about half an hour, but hikers should refrain from descending into the intricate canyons without orienteering skills, plenty of water, high-energy snacks and, ideally, a local guide.

Along the gravel road to Potrero de la Aguada, stop to look at the recently excavated Hornillos Huarpes, the ovens where the park’s pre-Columbian inhabitants prepared their food and fired their ceramics.

back to top

Practicalities
About one kilometer east of the Potrero de la Aguada overlook, there’s a free APN campground, where there’s also a small grocery with cold drinks. Near the park entrance, there’s a new comedor that serves full meals and cold drinks.

There’s no formal visitors center as yet, but rangers at the park entrance—where they collect a US$4 admission for foreigners, US$2 for Argentine residents—can answer questions. For guides, contact English-speaking geologist David Rivarola (tel. 02652/15-543629, rivarola@unsl.edu.ar, www.lasquijadas.com) in San Luis. Spanish-speaking visitors should look for Rivarola’s self-published guidebook El Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas y Sus Recursos Naturales.

Buses between San Luis and San Juan can drop passengers on the access road just north of the hamlet of Hualtarán. Travel agencies in the provincial capital sometimes organize day tours.