Desert Parks: Ischigualasto and Talampaya

November 17th was the day of the Desert Parks for Pedro and I.  

In the morning we visitted Parque Nacional Ischigualasto, also known as Valley of the Moon due to it´s barren landscape.  In the area of the park, continental uplift of the Andes has exposed around 45 million years of sedimentation from the Triassic period.  On the western edge of the park are the oldest dark yellow rocks, in the middle of the park are grey and light pink sediment from a middle period, and to the east are the the tall red cliffs from the late triassic.  The place is a goldmine of dinosaur bones.  We took a 3.5 hour bus tour with stops to see various rock formations caused by wind erosion and such. 

 We didn´t seen any dinosaur bones on site other than in the museum, but we did see some leaf impressions and lots of cool rocks.

In the afternoon we went to Parque Nacional Talampaya.  Again a desert park with rock formations caused by wind erosion, but what was really impressive were the dramatic red canyons that were formed by fractures in the rock.  The canyon walls are vertical and around 300 feet tall, separated by 100 feet or so of flat red sand and bright green acacia-looking trees. 

 There are also a lot of yellow-flowered bushes that look a bit like scotch broom, but they have no leaves and photosynthesize through their green bark.  

At the entrance to one of the canyons of Talampaya there is an incredible series of petroglyphs from around 500AD. 

Click here for more pictures of the parks

The fauna of the parks are apparently paid, because we got great photo-ops of Guanacos (look like llamas), a Condor, a Suri (looks like an emu), and a grey fox.  All throughout the desert areas we´ve visitted so far, there have been tons of small tan colored hawks (still need to find the exact name).