🇦🇷 Argentina · Patagonia
Piedra del Águila is a town on the Neuquén steppe, on National Route 237, in the south of the province, one of the classic stops on the run between Neuquén and Bariloche. Set in the valley of the Limay river, in a region of canyons, bluffs and large reservoirs, it is a place of services and rest in the middle of the arid, windy landscape of the Patagonian steppe.
Its surroundings are shaped by the Limay river and the great artificial lakes formed by the Comahue hydroelectric dams, such as the Piedra del Águila reservoir, one of the largest complexes in the region. These sheets of water, set among rock formations and plateaus, offer sport fishing, watersports, surprising landscapes and a striking contrast between the blue of the water and the ochre tones of the steppe.
For travellers, Piedra del Águila is both a strategic stop on the road — with petrol stations, accommodation and places to eat — and a window onto deep Patagonia: the Limay river, the canyons, the dinosaurs (the region is rich in fossil sites) and the big reservoirs. This guide gathers the practical side of making the most of it: prices, what to see, how to get there and seasonal advice.
Piedra del Águila grew up as a point on the steppe and an obligatory stop on the road between Neuquén and Bariloche, in the valley of the Limay river. Its development was tied to sheep farming, to trade and, in the 20th century, to the building of the great Comahue hydroelectric dams on the Limay, above all the Piedra del Águila dam, opened in 1993, which transformed the landscape with its enormous reservoir. The region also belongs to the 'Patagonia of the dinosaurs', rich in fossil sites. Today the town combines its role as a service stop on RN237 with a growing tourism tied to the lido, boating, sport fishing and the landscapes of the Limay. The full version is on the history page.
Read the full history ↓The province of volcanoes, lakes and the araucaria: Pehuenche and Mapuche land in northern Patagonia, world capital of the giant dinosaurs, heart of the Vaca Muerta shale and gateway to the Route of the Seven Lakes.
Read the history of Neuquén →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Where anglers from all over the world now cast their fly lines over a turquoise reservoir, barely four decades ago there was only a river hemmed in by bluffs and a handful of wind-battered sheep estancias. The dam that flooded that canyon in 1993 did not just generate power for much of the country: it completely transformed the identity of a town that until then was, above all, one more point on the map of the steppe. To understand Piedra del Águila is to understand that break between before and after the water.
Piedra del Águila was born and grew as a point on the vast Neuquén steppe, in the valley of the Limay river, tied from its beginnings to the road and to the traffic of northern Patagonia. Its name evokes the rock formations of the steppe landscape typical of the region, where the bluffs and canyons carved by wind and water dominate the horizon.
After Patagonia was incorporated into the Argentine state in the late 19th century, the region was slowly settled by ranchers and smallholders devoted above all to sheep farming, the traditional economic activity of the Patagonian steppe. The Limay river, which marks the border with Río Negro and crosses the area, was a vital element in this arid landscape, a source of water and a geographical reference.
As the road network linking the city of Neuquén with the mountains and Bariloche took shape — especially the route that would become today's RN237 — Piedra del Águila turned into a place of passage and services. Its position halfway along gradually shaped it as a natural stop for travellers, hauliers and people of the region.
The 20th century brought a deep transformation to the Limay valley: the development of the great Comahue hydroelectric system. Harnessing the flow of the Limay and the Neuquén rivers, the state and the energy companies built a series of large dams to generate electricity and regulate the water, in one of the most important infrastructure works in Patagonia.
The Piedra del Águila dam, one of the biggest in the complex, formed an extensive reservoir on the Limay, an enormous sheet of water set among the canyons and bluffs of the steppe. These works changed the landscape, created new bodies of water and gave rise to activities such as sport fishing, on top of their energy role for the Comahue region and much of the country.
Southern Neuquén and the Limay basin also belong to the so-called 'Patagonia of the dinosaurs', one of the richest fossil areas in the world, where remains of some of the largest dinosaurs known have been found. Although the big palaeontology museums are concentrated in other towns in the province, the area around Piedra del Águila is part of this vast territory of prehistoric past, adding another dimension to its identity as a town of the steppe and of the road.
Long before the arrival of the Argentine state and the dams, the valley of the Limay river and the Neuquén steppe were inhabited for millennia by indigenous peoples. Bands of hunter-gatherers roamed these lands following the guanacos and living off the resources of the river and the lagoons, in a landscape of bluffs, canyons and wind-beaten plateaus.
In more recent times, the region formed part of the extensive area of Mapuche and Tehuelche influence. The Limay river — whose name comes from Mapudungun and is associated with 'clear' or 'transparent water' — was a vital axis: a source of water, a route of movement and a geographical reference in an arid land. Along the valley there are archaeological records of these ancient occupations, part of the heritage now safeguarded by museums such as the one in Piedra del Águila.
The incorporation of Patagonia into the Argentine state in the late 19th century, after the military campaigns, opened a new stage of criollo and European settlement, with ranching estancias laid over this old indigenous territory. The memory of the indigenous peoples remains present in the place names, the regional rock art and the cultural identity of the steppe.
For much of the 20th century, Piedra del Águila was above all a place of passage: a service stop on the long road between the city of Neuquén and Bariloche, shaped by ranching, by trade and, from the 1980s, by the building of the great hydroelectric dam opened in 1993. The project drew workers and energised the local economy, leaving as its legacy the enormous reservoir that defines the landscape today.
Over time, that reservoir and the Middle Limay river became a first-rate tourist asset. Balneario Kumelkayen, with its beach, its landscaped waterfront and its services, turned the town into a summer destination for boating and relaxing, while trout fishing drew anglers from all over the world, who rate the Middle Limay as one of the best waters in northern Patagonia.
Today Piedra del Águila combines its historic role as a strategic stop on RN237 with a tourist identity of its own: the lido, watersports, fishing, viewpoints, sculptures and the closeness of the 'Patagonia of the dinosaurs'. The town is working to stop being merely a break in the journey and to establish itself as a destination of the Neuquén steppe, with water, rock and wind in the leading roles.
The construction of the Piedra del Águila dam, between the mid-1980s and its opening in 1993, was one of the great engineering works of 20th-century Argentina. The project required mobilising thousands of workers from across the country, who settled in camps and neighbourhoods built specially for the job, transforming overnight the scale of a town that until then counted barely a handful of families living off livestock.
During the construction years, Piedra del Águila lived through a kind of boomtown fever: shops, lodgings and services grew at the pace of demand from a floating population far larger than usual. Engineers, labourers and technicians lived alongside the original inhabitants of the steppe in a town that, for a while, worked almost like an energy frontier city.
When the dam opened and the reservoir reached its maximum level, flooding part of the old Limay canyon, many workers moved on to other projects, but part of that growth stayed for good. The power station is still one of the largest generators in the Comahue system, and the reservoir itself — a direct offspring of that monumental project — is the engine of the town's tourism today, in a paradox that sums up much of recent Patagonian history: out of the sacrifice of one original landscape came another, no less beautiful, that now draws thousands of visitors every summer.