Atacama – pt. 3: Valley of the Moon.

Atacama – pt. 1
Atacama – pt. 2

The next must-see stop on our winter trip through South America was Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) (here). It’s the usual Atacama deal: unreal mountain scenery and intense colors, and meditative raptures while beholding the same. Today I’ll be showing you photos of it all, but you really need to see it for yourself!…

These landscapes are truly unique. I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere else…

And the volcanoes in the background are perfectly cone-shaped: designer volcanoes! ->

A total feast for the eyes!

There are also some slightly reddish sand dunes – not huge, but a nice variety:

For the third time: Mother Nature, what kind of miracles are you pulling here?…

¡Bienvenidos al Valle de la Luna!

The place is open from nine till five:

In we go…

Walking required. Hurray! Here’s the trail:

Or did I “hurray” too soon? We were, after all, already rather worn out after Argentine Patagonia, all the Jujuy adventures, and now the mountains of Atacama…

No. The hurray wasn’t too soon: not with these views all around ->

Onward, upward, climbing higher and higher. The bonus: it’s even more colorful from up top…

Each one of these photos is basically desktop-wallpaper material:

Suddenly – a cloud rolled in. It muted the brightness, giving everything a different look (and not in a bad way) ->

Later someone told us that clouds in the Atacama in January are an anomaly. In summer (and January is summer here), it practically never happens!

An incredibly beautiful walk. Yet another!!

Nearby there’s a small old quarry where they used to mine salt:

And there really is salt here – lots of it, embedded right in the sedimentary rock:

Clearly not volcanic (despite all the volcanoes around) – these are definitely sedimentary layers:

And in those rock strata? Pure sodium chloride, aka – table salt! ->

Plus all sorts of other strange formations:

If you sit still, stay quiet, and listen carefully, you can hear the rocks occasionally crackling as they heat up in the sun. My verdict: cracking!

And if you wander off to the side a bit, there’s more to see – just on a smaller scale:

So there you have it, folks – the Valley of the Moon.

If I remember right, the speed limit here is 20 km/h – which makes sense: it’s so tourist cars don’t kick up dust and ruin the view for everyone.

Wow – what a meditative place. Atacama really does rule!

In closing – a few pics from photography buff DZ:

Walking on these sandy paths isn’t easy – especially uphill…

Going down is much easier – but not always…

But the views are just… sick! (Yo.)

Over and out from the Valley of the Moon. But more Atacama astonishments coming up tomorrow…

The best hi-res photos from LatAm-2026 are here.