Ruta 40 – Perito Moreno City to El Chalten

After the drive from Bariloche to Perito Moreno City where we stayed overnight. We left early the next morning to make it to El Chalten in the afternoon. This section of our Patagonian road trip is the most uninhabited one on the way and you can easily drive 400km without passing any villages. The scenery of the first one hour is very nice then it turns into the usual big empty pampa.

The first gas station on the way will be at Bajo Caracoles. It is a very very small village with a hotel,a restaurant,a gas station and a supermarket. At first the pumps looked like they are out of order. The gas station takes cash only here.

After hours of driving ruta 40 turns into a dirt road but you do not have to take it just yet. You can make a detour towards Gobernador Gregores and still drive on a paved road. There is a YPF petrol station in Gobernador Gregores which also takes credit cards if you need to fill up. Google maps navigation will want to take you all the way on Ruta 40. Don’t trust it unless you are happy to drive lot more on a gravel road.

Unfortunately once you leave the 29 and continue on Ruta 40 the road will turn into gravel road and it will be like that for the next 74km. It will change into a paved road a few kilometers before Tres Lagos.

Now, if you haven’t made the detour and filled up in Gobernador Gregores the closest gas station is right after Tres Lagos which is not taking debit or credit cards.

Not long after this gas station you will get to the Ruta 40, Ruta 41 junction. Turn onto Ruta 41 which will take you right to El Chalten.

The whole trip including pit stops took us about 8 hours. We took a lot of gopro footage on the way which has been compiled into a 10 minute video showing the highlights of the trip…