Talampaya National Park

Talampaya is a dry river that left behind a cathedral. Over millions of years water and wind cut down through layers of red Triassic sandstone in the far west of La Rioja province, and the result is a canyon whose sheer walls rise to around 145 metres, stained in iron reds and streaked with dark desert varnish, narrowing at one point to only about 80 metres wide. The name is thought to come from the extinct Cacán language and to mean something like "dry river of the tala", after a thorny local tree — fitting for a riverbed that runs only after summer storms.

The beauty here is in the shapes the erosion has left standing. Along the canyon the walls break into pinnacles and columns that visitors have named after what they resemble: La Catedral, a façade of fluted spires that looks uncannily Gothic; El Monje, a lone tower shaped like a hooded monk; the Kings, the Chessboard, the Castle. Near the narrowest point, in the so-called Botanical Garden, a vertical chimney eroded into the wall throws back a startling echo, and in the shade grow the shrubs and trees of the high Monte desert. Condors circle the rim; guanacos, maras and foxes move across the open plain outside.

People lived in this landscape long before it became a park. At the canyon entrance, smooth rock faces are covered with petroglyphs — spirals, animals and human figures — left by communities who occupied the area roughly between the second and twelfth centuries. The rocks themselves hold a far older archive: Talampaya is one of the places where early archosaurs, the group that would give rise to dinosaurs and crocodiles, have been found, among them the small, agile Lagosuchus talampayensis. Protected first as a provincial reserve in 1975 and as a national park in 1997, it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 together with neighbouring Ischigualasto, the two parks between them holding one of the most complete continental records of Triassic life on Earth.

The canyon cannot be explored alone: visits are made on guided excursions that run along the riverbed, stopping for short walks at the petroglyphs, the Botanical Garden, the Cathedral and the Monk. Other circuits lead to the labyrinth of eroded towers known as the Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City. Light is everything here — late afternoon sets the walls glowing — and the desert swings from hot days to cold nights.

Getting there

The park's entrance and visitor area lie on National Route 76 in La Rioja province, about 59 km from Villa Unión, the nearest tourist town. Chilecito, the closest larger town, is about 75 km away as the crow flies. The nearest airport is Capitán Vicente Almonacid Airport (IRJ) at La Rioja, around 110 km in a straight line but a little over 200 km by road from La Rioja city. Most visitors arrive by car or on tours from Villa Unión, often combining the canyon with Ischigualasto, which adjoins the park to the south.