|
IN BRIEF
|
Want to escape the classics and put the road back at the heart of the journey? This article takes you to two spectacular and still discreet horizons, where the earth seems to have changed its skin: the Badlands of South Dakota and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Mineral landscapes, lunar lights, starry sky, and salvific solitude: a road trip designed for those seeking the unexpected, away from crowds and overhyped routes.
Who said that escape only happens between Route 66 and the star parks of the West? Far from the crowded arches and motels with a standardized soundtrack, there are silent lands where the horizon breathes deeply. Here, the rock crumbles into slabs, dust dances in the midday sun, and the light, raw then golden, reinvents every relief. Two “Moons on Earth” stand out as inspiring alternatives: Badlands National Park, a raw jewel of the Midwest, and the Atacama Desert, one of the most arid places on the globe, a showcase of an almost cosmic mineral universe.
These itineraries promise a rare sensation: driving for the pleasure of the trace, stopping at the top of a ridge, sharing a picnic on a rock berm, waiting for the first ray on a sea of dunes or the last ember on striped badlands. The experience has a flavor of exploration: less crowd, more space, and the delightful feeling of being alone in front of the landscape.
First setting, the Badlands. The asphalt snakes through like a ribbon, amid an amphitheater of canyons and jagged hills. At dawn, the layers burst into flames of pink and ochre; at dusk, they turn purple. The bison, bighorn sheep, and foxes remind us that this America remains wild. At the borders, the Black Hills bring a forested softness that contrasts with the harshness of the plateaus, like a calming counterpoint to this otherworldly scenery.
The ideal loop is drawn from Rapid City: entry from the west, crossing the Badlands National Park, photo stop at the Pinnacles, walk on the Fossil Exhibit Trail to touch the geological memory of the places. Continue to Mount Rushmore and the small towns that still echo the conquest of the West, sometimes all the way to an old saloon converted into a craft shop. Here, nothing is superfluous: the rock, the horizon, the road.
Practical side, anticipate changing weather: strong winds, sudden storms, marked thermal amplitude. Bring sunglasses, high protection sunscreen, windbreaker, and a water supply of at least 3 liters per person per day. Gas stations are rare outside the main routes, better to fill up as soon as possible. For more itinerary ideas to combine or glean, browse through this travel catalog to feed your desires for free roads.
Change of hemisphere: head south, towards the Atacama Desert. In this kingdom of salt and rock, the land rises in ochre walls, sinks into silent valleys, and is adorned with turquoise lagoons that reflect the sky. At dawn, the geysers of El Tatio puff in milky columns; at dusk, the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) lights up with a theater of shadows and reliefs. At night, the sky, of rare purity, becomes an open-air planetarium: San Pedro de Atacama stands as a reference for astronomical observation.
Establish your base camp in San Pedro and radiate towards the salars, traditional villages, and some pre-Columbian sites. The typical itinerary links the Valley of the Moon, the geysers of El Tatio, the lagoons of the Altiplano, and the Salar de Atacama where flamingos and mirages share the horizon. Wildlife sometimes appears on the road: encountering a herd of vicunas around a bend is one of those surprises that leave a lasting impression.
Here, preparation is key: the altitude requires an adjustment period, warm clothing for the night, and cautious driving on trails. Bring GPS, offline map, generous water rations, and means to protect yourself from the zenithal sun. Distances, deceptive, stretch out in the intoxication of the landscapes; the essential is to maintain the slow pace that suits the vast spaces.
Transitioning from overvisited icons to these almost secret worlds transforms your way of traveling in America and the Altiplano. Here, the road becomes a space of freedom, a line that connects sincere stops: a breakfast on a sandstone slab, an improvised stop at the top of a ridge, a silence so dense it erases the tumult of established itineraries. With every change in light, the landscape reinvents itself, and one surprises oneself by taming time.
If you are traveling with family and dreaming of a whole different register, keep these seasonal and playful ideas in mind: Halloween destinations for kids. And to inspire closer getaways, draw from the treasures of Charente-Maritime, a getaway in an Alsatian town, or even the treasures of Guadeloupe: enough to vary the pleasures before or after your lunar interlude.
To get the most out of these territories, think simple and effective: sunglasses, high SPF cream, water reserves, thermal layers, approach shoes, camera. Leave room for the unexpected: a sunrise over a striped desert, the fleeting appearance of a fox, a hot coffee shared in the back of a 4×4, the workshop of a craftsman found behind the façade of an old saloon. These are the details, gathered along the asphalt, that give your road trip its note of celestial odyssey.
