Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley)
Moon Valley or Valle de La Luna near San Pedro de Atacama
- The Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) is 8,08 miles to the west of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on the old road to Calama, to the south of the new highway.
Is one of the highlights on any North of Chile tours, because of its strange natural beauty. The valley of the Moon is an interesting area of formation of stone and sand and receives this name due to the great similarity of the place to the moon landscapes.
Declared Sanctuary of the Nature, in the area you can find figures of salt and clay constructed with the pass of the years and the wind. “The three Marias” are figures of incomparable beauty that can be photographed.
The caverns of the salt are another tourist site in of the Moon Valley and they are accompanied by imposing Licancabur volcano. Look for the Amphitheater, a beautiful semicircle of hills and dunes. To the front it is the Greater Dune, of high altitude, which rises by a signalized footpath. On his feet there is a parking where daily at the dusk cars and buses with a numerous hundreds of visitors arrives to the Valley of the Moon who climb to the top to observe the sun putting, with one complete panoramic one of the Mountain range of the Andes and the Plane of the Patience.
Sunset at Valle de la Luna or Moon Valley
Without a doubt the Valley of the Moon is one of main attractive of San Pedro de Atacama, visited by hundreds of tourists year by year, who are really surprised by their singular a beauty to any place. 7
It is recommended to do the route by the Valle de la Luna at dawn or dusk, moment at which will be able to appreciate a geologic spectacle of great beauty, going up to dunes of the area.
It is administered by the indigenous community of San Pedro de Atacama and has guides to cross the place and the entrance fee has a value of $1,000 per person.
** Information related to Hours, Rates and Dates might change without any previous notice **
Av. Ossa #2314, Santiago, Chile. Zip Code: 7850054.
January 11th, 2009 at 10:47
Valley of the Moon aka Valle de la Luna Is located 13 kilometers west of San Pedro. It’s an interesting place with stone and sand formations which have been created through the centuries by floods and wind, which has also given it an extraordinary color and texture, looking similar to the surface of the moon. From a large sand dune in the valley, it is possible to appreciate all the marvelous and surprising features of this zone. In my opinion, if you visit only ONE place when you travel to Chile… this is.
February 1st, 2009 at 15:12
Thats a nice place to visit as according to me, a place which has scultures must ne nice. The pics show that the area is quite boring for me and hot kind but still if it looks like we are on moon then its really different and is supported by the fact that thousands go there every year.Although the entrance is costly but still its ok to see the moon on earth.