Bad gravel road | Warning

March 12th, 2024 by meaningfulyarn89

Going north to south today. Weather conditions : barely any wind, except 5km of mildly strong sidewind. I found the route to be nothing special, I have seen way more difficult rípio, e.g. between Villa Mañihuales and Coyhaique. I have 37mm (1.40") Schwalbe Marathon tyres, and while I had to stay focused, the road wasn't as terrible as people say.
Points of attention:
Km20: a stream to refill water bottles
Km22: nice views on Torres del Paine in the distance
Km33,5: a house on the left. I don't know if anyone lives there.
Km35: the only SOS pole on the whole route to Tapi Aike
Km30 to 38: worst part according to me
Km36: nice guanaco valley
Km40: nice view on Torres del paine
Km44: excellent view on some mountains straight forward
Km50 till Tapi Aike (km65): Excellent view on Torres del Paine
Mind you, you never see the Torres themselves though :P

February 16th, 2024 by nathi

Update for Campers:
Coming from south first 35 km bad ripio with a lot of big stones. Our average speed was something around 20 km/h.
The next 30 km are very nice ripio with a few bad parts. Average speed around 55km/h
In total (without breaks and so on) we needed a little bit more than 2 hours for the whole way.
You can stay very nice at the small river next to the police station.
Cars and pickups were driving much faster, even the bad ripio part. I guess most of them are rentals :D
So if you have seen the paved way via Esperanza already this track is a nice thing to do ;-)

February 10th, 2024 by Matt Pepperdine

For cyclists: coming from the north, the first 30km are ok, the next 15km are bad, and the final 15km are absolutely terrible. Some of the worst ripio I’ve seen. It’s barely even a gravel road at some points, just bumpy stones stuck into the ground.

I don’t know why people are saying the scenery is nice, it’s just flat featureless boring scrubland. Sometimes you can see Torres del Paine far on the horizon, but you’re either going that way or have just it.

February 8th, 2024 by desperatelyseekingadventure.co.uk

From a cyclists point of view, if you’re coming north heading towards Cero Castillo and have done some of the ripio in Peru, Ruta 40 further north etc, you will find this road fairly easy. It’s short, flat with some beautiful scenery, and no cars! We’re riding 2.1” tyres and fully loaded. We didn’t have high winds though so may be something to consider

January 27th, 2024 by mimydawson

Just to confirm this road is a definite avoid. We were doing the Rio Turbio (Paso Dorotea) crossing from Chile to Argentina, heading to El Calafate and Google told us to take this road. After 10 minutes we decided to turn back. It’s all very bad ripio (gravel road) and is horrible to drive. We took the longer route past Esperanza and it was 100% worth it - paved road the whole way. Would avoid this ripio road if you can (the road is number 7 on the map). Stick to the route 40.

February 23rd, 2023 by leolapouge

Confirm, bad Filipino for the bike. Maybe the worst I experienced.

Most of the time, you have wind back to Esperanza. Maybe a better idea to push to Esperanza and wake up early the next day to ovoid wind when you turn west.

No really sure you save time to take this road. But landscape are nice en police station as well.

February 13th, 2023 by nicolas.dochler

We travel by bike. The for: it saves a day compared to the detour by Esperanza. We put 6 hours with a moderate side wind. And no car.
The cons: the ripio is really horrible

December 31st, 2022 by mmq-photography.com

Don't take this road. It's gravel. The one via Esperanza is longer, but faster. Also recommended by the locals 😊

December 29th, 2022 by marlenundferdi.at

cycling from tapi aike north with tailwind is not so bad. the first part of the road near tapi aike is quite bad, but it gets better. from the old police station to el cerrito the gravelroad was in very good condition.
cycling north you avoid cycling against the wind from esperanza to el cerrito.
cycling south is maybe better via esperanza?

December 12th, 2022 by dorris.slapak

First half of the road (from the north) is fine, especially with 4WD and high clearance, could drive like 70km/h. Second part from this sign onwards is worse. Bigger rocks, more uneven, had to drive much slower. Not sure if it takes more/less time than the paved road.

November 22nd, 2022 by janlalak

still bad shape. we turned around after 100m and went by R5 and R7 through Esperanza.

June 3rd, 2022 by anezkaa13

We did this road today, still not in good condotions, all way around 30km/h, but nice views

March 8th, 2020 by arnaud.chiaradia

yep. same advice for cyclists. We took that road for having the strong wind in the back, so it was ok, but in normal conditions, really consider to take the asphalt road , even if much longer. it took us more than 6 hours to go the 60km (beak not included )

January 28th, 2020 by Jaartjeverlof.com

We took the dirt road instead of the way via Esperanza, but would advise on not doing so. The detour is longer, but takes less time (at least in our van). The road is partly fine, partly bad, while the road via Esperanza is paved all the way.

January 24th, 2020 by info

If you are not sure whether to take this shortcut to El Calafate or the longer way passing Esperanza: take the longer way. This gravel road is in a bad condition, lots of bigger stones didn‘t let us drive faster than 30km/h most of the time with our pickup-camper. However, the scenery is beautiful.

December 2nd, 2019 by rascalsandrooftents

We took the old route 40 rather than the tarred longer route 7 / 5. Rippled and rocky road surfce most of the way. We dropped the tyre pressure but still a slow bumpy detour. Scenery isn't anything special.