Cajón del Maipo

Up the Maipo out of Santiago into the high Andes: gorge, then desert, then glaciers at the end of the tarmac.

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Why this ride

The stops in between: San Alfonso and El Volcán. The highest point is 1,800 m. The line favours views over speed.

Roadbook

1. San José de Maipo start · 970 m

   San José de Maipo is the gateway to the Cajón del Maipo, the deep river canyon that runs from the edge of Santiago into the high Andes. Only about an hour from the capital's sprawl, the town sits at roughly 970 metres, where the valley narrows and the air turns cooler and drier. Its centre is a quiet cluster of adobe and whitewashed houses with tiled roofs, a handsome church and a plaza shaded by old trees, and weekend visitors from the city fill the bakeries and restaurants. The Maipo River, brown with snowmelt, rushes below.

   The valley has a long history of mining, and silver and copper were worked in the mountains above the town from the colonial period. The road that follows the canyon, Route G-25, climbs past villages such as San Alfonso and El Melocotón, where orchards and weekend cabins line the river, and onward to Baños Morales and the Monumento Natural El Morado, a protected glacier valley. Higher still, a road of gravel and sharp bends leads to the Embalse El Yeso, a turquoise reservoir built in the 1960s that supplies much of Santiago's drinking water, ringed by bare peaks.

   Riding here is spectacular, though the surface changes as you climb. The lower valley is paved and busy with weekend traffic, and the road narrows past the town, with tight bends, rockfall risk and sudden gusts. The upper reaches to the reservoir are gravel and dust, demanding care, especially after rain or snowmelt. Weather in the mountains shifts fast, and the road can close in winter snow. Start early to avoid the weekend crush, and bring warm layers.

   Food is part of the pleasure: empanadas de pino, grilled meats, fresh bread and local honey, all easy to find along the main street. Fuel is available in town, but fill up in Puente Alto, about twenty kilometres back, to be safe. The Andes rise around you, and in clear weather snowfields glitter on the ridges. Autumn brings gold poplars along the river, and spring brings blossom, with fewer visitors than summer.

2. San Alfonso scenic · 1100 m

   San Alfonso is a village in the Cajón del Maipo, the deep valley that the Maipo River has cut into the Andes south-east of Santiago, and it sits at eleven hundred metres, where the air has already thinned and cooled compared with the city below. It belongs to the commune of San José de Maipo, and it is the kind of place where Santiagueños come on weekends to get away from the heat, with rafting, horse riding, mountain biking and long Sunday lunches built around a wood-fired grill. Nearby are the Cascada de las Ánimas, a waterfall and nature reserve, and several small hotels and campsites along the river.

   The valley is the water supply of the Chilean capital, and it is a dramatic one. The river runs cloudy grey-brown with glacial silt, and the walls rise on both sides into bare, folded rock, with the snow-capped cone of the Volcán San José, at about fifty-eight hundred metres, anchoring the head of the valley. The light here is strong, the air is dry, and in the afternoon a wind blows up the valley from the plain. The vegetation is dry scrub, cacti and hardy trees, and the colours are warm browns and ochres, with green in the narrow strips beside the water.

   The road, the G-25, climbs steadily from the outskirts of Puente Alto, and it is a good motorcycle road with a surface that is generally smooth and bends that tighten as the valley narrows. It is, however, the only road, so on summer weekends it is slow with Santiago traffic, and on any day you will share it with trucks serving the mines and the hydroelectric stations. Rockfalls and landslides can close sections after heavy rain or in the spring melt, so check conditions. The best times are on weekday mornings, from spring through autumn.

   Fuel is the thing to settle before you leave the city. San José de Maipo, the main village of the valley, has services and is the last reasonable place to fill up, and Puente Alto, nearly thirty kilometres away, is the large town where you will find everything. San Alfonso has places to eat, from simple grills to more ambitious cooking, and the evenings are cool enough that a fire is welcome.

3. El Volcán scenic · 1400 m

   El Volcán is where the Cajón del Maipo starts to feel like proper mountain country. At fourteen hundred metres, the valley has narrowed into a gorge, the walls are bare rock and scree, and the peaks at its head, including the volcano that gives the village its name, stand above the snowline for much of the year. Few people live here, and the settlement has an end-of-the-line feel that suits the setting.

   There was once a railway. In the early twentieth century a line was built from Puente Alto up the valley to El Volcán, carrying passengers and freight, including the materials for hydroelectric schemes and the produce of the mines, and it ran until the 1980s. You can still trace its course along the valley in places, as embankments, bridges and the odd station building, and the memory of it is part of local identity. The valley's story is mostly one of water, rock and effort: the dams, the tunnels, the mines and the people who worked in them.

   The road beyond San José de Maipo becomes quieter and more demanding. The surface can be rough in places, particularly after winter, the bends tighten, and there are stretches with steep drops beside the tarmac and no barrier. Keep your speed under control and watch for falling rocks, particularly in spring and after rain. Altitude brings its own problems, since temperatures can drop sharply, and a clear sky in the afternoon can turn into a freezing evening. The light, though, is superb, with the high peaks catching the last sun long after the valley floor has fallen into shadow.

   Beyond El Volcán, the road continues toward the hot springs and the high valley around Baños Morales, and then the surface deteriorates, so be sure of your bike and your tyres before you carry on. Services are very limited in this upper part of the valley: there is no reliable fuel, and the few shops and restaurants are seasonal. Fill up in San José de Maipo or before, take food and water, and tell someone where you are going. In winter the road can be affected by snow and ice, and sections may be closed, so the best months for the ride are late spring to early autumn.

4. Baños Morales finish · 1800 m

   Baños Morales is the last village of any size in the Cajón del Maipo, the deep, glacier-carved valley that runs east from Santiago into the high Andes, and at about 1,800 meters it feels like the end of the road. The paved road, the G-25, follows the Maipo River upstream from San José de Maipo through a canyon of red and ochre rock, with sage-green scrub, poplar groves and sudden views of snowy peaks. Beyond the village, a dirt road continues toward the El Yeso reservoir and the foot of the San José volcano, which tops 5,800 meters.

   The village is small, with a handful of cabins, a modest restaurant or two and hot springs, the Termas de Baños Morales, where mineral water emerges from the mountain. A short walk leads to the El Morado Natural Monument, where a turquoise lagoon sits beneath a hanging glacier, and in summer the mountain meadows fill with wildflowers. Nearby, the old mountain hut at Lo Valdés, built in the 1930s from local stone, has long served mountaineers, and the rocks around it hold marine fossils from the Jurassic.

   For riders, the Cajón del Maipo is a favorite escape from the city. The road climbs steadily, with curves around rock buttresses and over bridges, and the scenery changes from vineyards and orchards to bare, jagged peaks. The paved surface is generally good, but rockfalls, washouts and cattle on the road are possible, and the dirt road beyond the village can be rough, with deep gravel and stream crossings. Weekends bring a crush of day-trippers from Santiago, so start early and avoid Sunday evenings, when the road back is slow.

   There are no reliable services at the top, so fill the tank in San José de Maipo or Santiago, and carry water and snacks. In summer, from December to March, the weather is warm and dry, with strong sun at altitude and cool nights; in winter, snow can close the road beyond San Gabriel, often from June to September. Condors circle over the peaks, and the air is thin and sharp. The villages along the way sell empanadas, and a hot one on the roadside is the right reward.

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