Qualla: National Route 40 (Argentina)

National Route 40 (Argentina): Introduction

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Giacomo Miceli, Public domain. There is a number painted on road signs the length of Argentina, a white 40 inside a blue diamond, and to anyone who has driven even a stretch of it, that symbol means something close to freedom. Ruta Nacional 40 runs more than 5,000 kilometers, from the windswept far south near the Strait of Magellan to the Bolivian border high in the Andean Puna. It is the longest highway in the country and one of the longest in the world, a road in the same mythic company as Route 66. To drive Ruta 40 is not to get somewhere quickly. It is to take the slow road along the entire western edge of a continent.

Image: Giacomo Miceli | Public domain

National Route 40 (Argentina): The Length of a Country

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. The numbers alone are staggering. Ruta 40 stretches roughly 5,194 kilometers and crosses eleven provinces, shadowing the Andes the whole way from Santa Cruz in the deep south to Jujuy in the far north. Along its course it passes some twenty national parks, fords or bridges eighte...

Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

National Route 40 (Argentina): A Road That Fights Back

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Santiago matamoro, CC BY 3.0. This is not a polished tourist highway, and that is the point. Long sections remain unpaved, and even paved stretches can dissolve into gravel detours where construction crews are at work. Plan at least two weeks to enjoy the route properly; in a real hurry it might be done in ei...

Image: Santiago matamoro | CC BY 3.0

National Route 40 (Argentina): The Roof of the Route

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eugenio Costa, Public domain. The highest and hardest point comes in the north, at the Abra del Acay in Salta Province, where the road serpentines up to 4,972 meters above sea level, one of the highest stretches of drivable road on the planet. Here an ordinary car will not do; the route demands an off-road ve...

Image: Eugenio Costa | Public domain

National Route 40 (Argentina): Every Landscape in One Line

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit R. Rodriguez, CC BY-SA 4.0. What makes the road legendary is the sheer range of worlds it passes through. In the far south it crosses the lonely Patagonian meseta, a harsh steppe where the only company for hours is wind and the occasional guanaco. Near El Calafate it skirts the great glacial lakes of Los Gl...

Image: R. Rodriguez | CC BY-SA 4.0