Valle de la Luna, Chile
It was our first day in the Atacama Desert. We had driven an hour’s dusty road from sleepy Cálama to sleepier San Pedro, eaten lunch, and dropped our bags at our hotel. After stopping at the only gas station in 200 miles (truly) and filling up on diesel* and Gatorade, we headed to one of the region’s most famous sites: Valle de la Luna, or Moon Valley.
*yes, our car only took diesel
As I’ve explained in prior posts, the Atacama Desert is one vast, expansive, uncompromising desert. It is so similar to an extraterrestrial landscape that scientists from all over the world perform experiments on its soil to learn more about lunar soil and test the Mars rover. Film crews travel to the Atacama Desert to capture the dry, barren, rocky landscape of a planet you might see in Star Wars.
The part of the Atacama Desert that is most famous for this lunar landscape is the aptly-named Valley of the Moon, whose stone and sand formations have been shaped and sculpted by eons of wind and water. From the depths of a vast underground saline lake in the Salar de Atacama, salt deposits rise up, carved by earth’s atmosphere into outcrops that appear man-made.
At sunset, rays of pink and purple highlight the red stone of bowl-shaped caverns and mountain edges. This sunset is so famous that the park that manages the Valle de la Luna only allows in a certain number of people per time slot. More than this, if you don’t book your time slot in advance, you will most certainly not be let into the park at sunset.
This is, sadly, what happened to us when we showed up at the ranger center at 5pm, two hours before sunset. After being turned away that evening, we bought tickets for the next morning. Pro tip: buy your tickets for a sunset tour of Valle de la Luna at a kiosk in San Pedro at least a day in advance of visiting, or plan to visit during a less-crowded time, such as morning or mid-day.
The next morning, we departed San Pedro early, and were surprised to find that Valle de la Luna was ours to behold–alone. This was one of the major perks of visiting it during off-hours. There are a couple ways to get around the park: hiking, horseback riding, biking, or driving.
Some people opt to bike from San Pedro to Valle de la Luna. We saw tons of tourist kiosks advertising this option. They even claimed that biking to Valle de la Luna was just “five minutes down the road!” We, who had rented a car, opted to drive, and were so thankful we did. First, Valle de la Luna is not just five minutes down the road from San Pedro–not even in a car. It is easily a 15-minute drive. Second, the roads are awful. Just truly terrible. I thought my teeth were going to fall out of my head, and we were driving an SUV with 4WD. Third, the dogs. The San Pedro dogs are a little bit of a joke among locals, we later found out. The town is full of stray dogs, almost all of which are adorable, sweet, and well-fed. But they love chasing bikes. As we were leaving Valle de la Luna, we noticed a pair of bikers being pursued by four stray dogs who were nipping at their heels and causing chaos on the road. Later, in a tourist shop in San Pedro, we saw a t-shirt that had a caricature of bikers being chased by dogs. Cyclists: consider yourself warned.
The park isn’t like most national parks I’ve visited–it’s not a free-for-all. Rather, there is a designated biking and driving path that makes a loop starting and ending at the Visitor’s Center. There are also designated parking areas at the major stops along the route, and parking is prohibited at all other areas.
Our morning at Valle de la Luna consisted of visiting the major formations: the Duna Mayor (sand dunes), el Anfiteatro (the “amphitheater”), the Salt Caves, and Tres Marias. Below are photos from the incredible two-hour journey we took through the Moon Valley–truly, another planet of salt, clay, crystals, and heat.
Duna Mayor (the Sand Dunes)
Anfiteatro
Chunks of salt 
I licked this rock and it was very, very salty
Las Tres Marias
Las Tres Marias was our final stop on our self-guided tour. In the background of the below photos, you’ll see three salt-and-clay formations rising together out of the earth, shaped by wind and intense erosion.
Yes, I was sick in this photo; and yes, the Atacama dryness was not friendly toward the common cold.
