Count them as you drive, because the road dares you to. Between the towns of San Martín de los Andes and Villa La Angostura, a 107-kilometer stretch of Argentina's National Route 40 bends past one lake after another until the name writes itself: the Camino de los Siete Lagos, the Road of the Seven Lakes. This is northern Patagonia at its most generous, where the pavement keeps rounding a bend to reveal yet another sheet of cold blue water held in a bowl of forested mountains. It is less a route between two places than a slow argument that the journey is the destination.
The seven lakes that give the road its name are Machónico, Escondido, Correntoso, Espejo, Lácar, Falkner, and Villarino, each with its own character: some broad and wind-ruffled, others, like Escondido, the Hidden Lake, tucked almost shyly into the trees. The number is really a polite undercount. Secondary roads branch off toward still more water: Meliquina, Hermoso, Traful, and the little Espejo Chico among them. The lakes were carved by glaciers and filled by the meltwater and rain of the Andes, and the road simply traces the easiest path between them, which happens to be one of the most beautiful in the country.
The drive does not pass through ordinary countryside. It crosses two of Argentina's great protected areas, Lanín National Park to the north and Nahuel Huapi National Park to the south, which means the forest pressing in on both sides is the real Patagonian Andes, not a managed verge. Coihue and lenga beech rise from the slopes, waterfalls feed the lakes, and the snow-streaked peaks of the cordillera stand watch in the distance. The road is now fully paved along its length, save for the gravel detours that wander off to quieter lakes like Traful, an invitation for anyone willing to trade smooth tarmac for solitude.
You can cover the 107 kilometers in a single unhurried day, and many travelers do, treating it as a string of overlooks to be stopped at one by one. But the Road of the Seven Lakes rewards patience more than speed. Each viewpoint frames its lake differently, the light shifting as the sun crosses the peaks, the water turning from steel to turquoise to mirror-still. Long a celebrated scenic route, the road was formally folded into Route 40, the legendary highway that runs the entire length of Argentina, so that this glittering Patagonian chapter now belongs to one of the longest and most storied roads on the continent. Start in San Martín de los Andes or in Villa La Angostura; either way, the lakes line up to meet you.
The Road of the Seven Lakes runs roughly between 40.17°S and 40.78°S along National Route 40 in Argentina's Neuquén Province, with a midpoint near 40.63°S, 71.71°W. From the air, the chain of glacial lakes set in dark forest is unmistakable, running north-south just east of the main Andean crest; the larger Lácar Lake near San Martín de los Andes and Nahuel Huapi to the south anchor the ends. Recommended viewing altitude 8,000 to 11,000 feet to follow the lake chain. Nearest airports are Aviador Carlos Campos Airport (ICAO SAWO) serving Chapelco near San Martín de los Andes, and Bariloche's Teniente Luis Candelaria Airport (SAZS) to the south. Patagonian winds can be strong; mornings are typically calmer and clearer.