The Alta Montaña road, Mendoza to the border

Most people come to Mendoza for the wine and leave without seeing the thing the wine is grown against. The Alta Montaña circuit fixes that in a day: Route 7 west from the city, climbing from 750 metres to the Chilean border at Cristo Redentor, past the highest mountain outside Asia.

It is a long day — roughly 400 kilometres return, eight to ten hours with stops — and it is almost entirely the same road out and back.

Potrerillos, about an hour out

A reservoir in a bowl of low mountains, the first place the city drops away. Rafting and kayaking operators work the Mendoza river here, and it is the usual breakfast or coffee stop rather than a destination of its own.

Uspallata, the halfway town

At 1,900 metres, in a broad valley where the colours change from green to ochre. Uspallata is where the circuit stops being a drive out of town and starts being a mountain trip: the Bóvedas, eighteenth-century smelting domes, sit just north of the centre, and the valley was stood in for Tibet in Seven Years in Tibet.

It is also the last reliable place for fuel and a full lunch. Fill up.

Puente del Inca

A natural bridge over the Las Cuevas river, stained orange and yellow by the thermal springs that built it. The old spa hotel underneath was destroyed by an avalanche in 1965 and the ruins are still there, slowly being mineralised.

The bridge itself is fenced — you look at it, you do not walk on it.

The Aconcagua lookout

A few kilometres further, a short signposted walk from the car park reaches the viewpoint over the Horcones lagoon, with Aconcagua’s south face behind it — 6,961 metres, the highest peak in the Americas. In summer the walk is easy; the wind is the problem, not the gradient.

The park entrance is seasonal and climbing permits are a separate matter entirely. For a day visitor, the lookout is the trip.

Cristo Redentor, and whether you get there

The statue sits at 3,832 metres on the border itself, up a gravel switchback road that is only open roughly January to March, weather permitting. Outside that window the circuit ends at Las Cuevas, which is no loss — the viewpoint is the point.

Practicalities

• Leave early. The cloud builds over Aconcagua through the afternoon.
• Fuel in Uspallata, not after.
• Carry layers. It can be 30°C in Mendoza and near freezing at the lookout.
• Check the pass. Route 7 is the main Argentina–Chile crossing and closes for snow in winter, sometimes for days.
• Altitude is real above 3,000 metres. Go slowly, drink water, skip the wine at lunch.