Ten kilometres from San Pedro de Atacama, the land turns into something that looks borrowed from another planet, which is how the Valle de la Luna got its name. The valley is part of the Cordillera de la Sal, a range of ridges formed by folded salt and clay that have been squeezed, cracked and eroded by wind into fins, gullies and crusted white ridges. The ground is pale and brittle, and in places the salt crystallises on the surface in a thin frost that crackles under your boots. This is the driest desert in the world, and every detail of it feels sharpened by that fact.
The best moment is the end of the day. Before sunset the ridges turn from beige to orange and then to pink, with the Licancabur volcano standing in the distance above the Bolivian border and the long shadows making the folds look three-dimensional. Crowds gather on the dune viewpoints for exactly this reason, so be ready to share the light, and bring a layer, because the temperature drops sharply once the sun slips behind the Domeyko range. At midday the glare is fierce and the air is bone dry, so water matters more than people think.
The riding around San Pedro is made of long straight paved roads, gravel tracks, and a lot of space. The road to the valley is short and manageable, but the surrounding area is full of sand, corrugations and wind that can push a bike off line on exposed stretches. Keep an eye on the weather and the surface, particularly if you head off the main road, and carry plenty of fluids. Altitude here is already about 2,400 metres, so give yourself a day to adjust before heading up to the lagoons.
San Pedro itself is a low adobe town of narrow streets, with a few thousand permanent residents and a steady flow of travellers, tour agencies and cafes. It has fuel, but it is worth filling the tank and carrying spare capacity if you plan a longer loop, because the distances out here are large and the next pump can be far. The village also has a small church dating back to the colonial era, and the Atacameño people who lived here long before the Spanish still shape its culture.
There is an entry charge for the protected area, and rules about staying on marked routes, which protect the fragile salt formations. Respect them and the valley will look the same for the next rider.