Cardones National Park

Los Cardones National Park is named after cardon cacti – long plants reaching a height of 3 meters. Some cacti growing here are almost 300 years old.

The park has an area of 650 square kilometers. On its territory there are hills and ravines at an altitude of 2,700 and 5,000 meters. The park has been protected since 1996.

The problem with the park is that the long cardon cacti growing here are threatened with extinction, since the locals use them irrationally - valuable fiber is extracted from cacti.

In addition to cacti, yellow daffodils and churka trees of the legume family grow in the park. Of the animals in the park live vicuñas, foxes, donkeys, armadillos, parrots, condors, as well as rare birds - topacolo or canastero. In the park were found traces of dinosaurs, which are more than 70 million years old.