🇦🇷 Argentina · Cuyo
The Reserva Provincial La Payunia (or Payunia) is one of the most impressive volcanic landscapes in Argentina and, according to specialists, one of the areas with the highest density of volcanic cones on the planet: it holds more than 800 volcanoes across a vast stretch of far southern Mendoza, in the Malargüe department. It is an overwhelming stage of black lava fields, multicolored sands and herds of guanacos.
Far from the mass circuits, La Payunia is a destination for travelers after extreme landscapes and solitude: fields of volcanic scoria, the imposing Payún Matrú volcano, the Payún Liso, the Castillos de Pincheira along the way, the 'volcanic bombs' and the colored sands of the Pampas Negras and the Campo de Bombas. The wildlife — guanacos, choiques (rheas), foxes, pumas — moves freely across this almost untouched territory.
This guide covers the essentials of La Payunia: how and from where to visit it (Malargüe as a base), the main highlights of the route, why you need a tour or a guide given how remote it is, the recommendations on weather and gear, and why it is a candidate for World Heritage status. A unique destination for lovers of geology, volcanoes and wild nature.
La Payunia is a volcanic field in southern Mendoza, in Malargüe, formed by the activity of hundreds of volcanoes over hundreds of thousands of years. Land of the ancient Pehuenche and Puelche peoples, it was protected as a provincial reserve to conserve its exceptional concentration of volcanic cones — among the greatest in the world — and its guanaco population. It is a candidate for Unesco World Heritage status.
Read the full history ↓The land of sun and good wine: a Huarpe oasis at the foot of Aconcagua, cradle of San Martín's Army of the Andes, rebuilt after the 1861 earthquake and turned into the world capital of Malbec and the high mountains.
Read the history of Mendoza →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Picture yourself standing anywhere on the Mendoza steppe and being able to count, without moving, dozens of different volcanoes outlined against the horizon. That is what happens in La Payunia: not one volcano, or two, but a field of more than eight hundred volcanic cones scattered across a semi-desert stretch of far southern Mendoza, a concentration so extraordinary that geologists cite it as one of the highest densities of volcanism on the planet, closer to the landscapes of Mars than to anywhere else in Argentina.
This volcanic field is the result of hundreds of thousands of years of geological activity. The land is dotted with that astonishing number of cones, which makes it, according to specialists, one of the regions with the highest density of volcanoes on the planet. That exceptional concentration is the basis of its scientific and scenic value.
The eruptions, spread across different geological periods, produced a mosaic of shapes and materials: extensive flows of solidified lava, fields of black scoria (the so-called Pampas Negras, which look like a lunar landscape), cinder cones, 'volcanic bombs' (fragments of lava thrown into the air that solidified in flight) and sands and soils in many colors, depending on the minerals present. The whole is dominated by two great volcanoes: the Payún Matrú, with its broad caldera, and the Payún Liso, with its conical profile, rising above 3.600 meters.
This austere, monumental landscape is a genuine natural laboratory of volcanology, where practically every form of volcanism can be seen in a single place. For the visitor, traveling through it is like walking on another planet: black fields to the horizon, reddish cones, colored sands and a deep silence. The force of the Earth was recorded here in a way few places in the world can match.
Southern Mendoza, where La Payunia lies, was the territory of indigenous peoples such as the Pehuenche and the Puelche, hunters and gatherers adapted to the steppe and the mountains, who moved across these vast lands following the hunt — especially of the guanaco — and the seasonal resources. The name 'Payún' comes from indigenous languages of the region, linked to the idea of 'beard' or to the shape of the volcanoes, depending on the interpretation. Human presence in the area is, therefore, very old.
More recent history added colorful episodes. On the road to the reserve stand the Castillos de Pincheira, rock formations that owe their name to the Pincheira brothers, famous outlaws of Chilean origin who, according to tradition, operated and took refuge in the mountain area in the early 19th century, against the backdrop of the conflicts of the day. The legends about their raids and supposed treasures enrich the local imagination.
For a long time this remote region of southern Mendoza stayed on the margins of the main centers, given over to extensive grazing (mostly goats and sheep) and crossed by drovers and puesteros who used its pastures. That condition of rough, sparsely settled land paradoxically helped to preserve its nature almost intact, laying the ground for its later protection as a natural area of exceptional value.
The extraordinary geological, scenic and wildlife value of La Payunia led to its protection as a provincial reserve of Mendoza, with the aim of conserving both its exceptional volcanic field and the fauna it shelters. Among that fauna stands out one of the most important guanaco populations in Argentina, moving in large herds across the volcanic steppe, along with choiques, foxes, maras, pumas and a range of birds adapted to this extreme environment.
The importance of La Payunia went beyond the province and the country: the area has been put forward as a candidate for Unesco World Heritage status, in recognition of its outstanding universal value as a volcanic field with an extremely high density of cones, a geological phenomenon of global significance. The candidacy seeks to secure its conservation and to give international profile to one of the most singular landscapes in the country.
Tourism in La Payunia is relatively recent and is handled carefully, given how fragile the environment is and how remote the territory. Visits are usually made on guided tours from Malargüe, which has established itself as the service base for discovering this wonder. Today La Payunia is one of Mendoza's great natural treasures and an unmissable destination for anyone after extreme volcanic landscapes, wildlife and the solitude of an almost untouched land.
If geology is the soul of La Payunia, its wildlife is its beating heart. The reserve protects one of the largest and best conserved guanaco populations in Argentina: thousands of animals that move in large herds across the volcanic steppe, in seasonal migrations between grazing areas. Watching them run, silhouetted against the black of the Pampas Negras and the reddish cones, is one of the most powerful images the country has to offer. The guanaco is also a keystone species of the Patagonian-Cuyo ecosystem, natural prey of the puma and a disperser of seeds.
Alongside the guanaco live other species adapted to this extreme environment: the choique or lesser rhea (Rhea pennata), red and grey foxes, maras or Patagonian hares, pumas — more elusive and rarely seen — as well as birds of prey, partridges and various steppe species. The dryness, the wind and the temperature swings shape an austere but remarkably well preserved biological community, precisely because the territory is so remote and so thinly settled.
Protecting La Payunia as a provincial reserve sought to conserve this exceptional set of geological, scenic and wildlife values. Management of the area tries to reconcile conservation with careful, small-scale tourism, aware of how fragile the environment is. The recovery and monitoring of the guanaco populations, and the control of poaching, have been central goals of an administration that sees the reserve as a natural heritage to be handed on intact to the next generations.
In recent years the province of Mendoza took a key step to protect this heritage: it unified access to its protected natural areas — including La Payunia, the Caverna de las Brujas and the Laguna de Llancanelo — under a ticketing system that is exclusively online, through the official portal entradasanp.mendoza.gov.ar and the Mendoza x Mí app. The measure answers a very concrete need: controlling the flow of visitors in a fragile territory with no capacity to absorb mass tourism and no infrastructure to sell tickets on site. Anyone who reaches the reserve without having bought a ticket in advance runs a real risk of being turned away, even after covering hundreds of kilometers of gravel road to get there.
That framework also set different rates by activity: a general daily admission, extra charges for those who want to trek up to the volcanoes, per-vehicle fees for 4x4 tours, horseback riding and even camping inside the protected area. The scheme also provides free entry for children under twelve, retirees, people with disabilities and war veterans, and a fifty per cent discount for residents of the Malargüe department itself, an attempt to let the local community keep enjoying its own heritage without international tourism turning into a financial barrier.
This system took hold alongside steady growth in tourist interest in La Payunia, which in recent years has become one of the icons of the so-called 'Corredor de los Volcanes' of southern Mendoza, promoted together with other Malargüe attractions such as the Caverna de las Brujas, the Laguna de Llancanelo and the Castillos de Pincheira. Local agencies — Ikatu Viajes, Aymara Viajes, Payunia Travel, Choique and others — run daily full-day expeditions in season covering some 420 kilometers there and back on gravel roads, with breakfast at a goat herders' post, a country lunch at the Real del Molle settlement and stops at highlights such as the Pampas Negras, the Campo de Bombas, Los Colores and the El Morado volcano, where there is usually a final walk up to the crater rim. That circuit, more professional every year but still genuinely remote, is how thousands of travelers from around the world today get to see one of the most extraordinary volcanic landscapes on the planet without compromising its fragility.