Perito Moreno - El Calafate: Gravel
 

I have read the road from Perito Moreno to El Calafate has deep and challenging gravel. I can handle hard packed gravel but, riding two up and loaded I’d rather avoid deep gravel or narrow tracks with deep gravel at edges especially if there’s a strong side wind.

If anyone knows current Jan 2024 conditions of road I’d appreciate input.

We did it twice 2up in 2019 and 2020. There are deep traces which made it tricky and long, remember something like 70 km. The third time we put the bike on a pick up and we had a good feeling. Think situation has not changed much.

There is no point in worrying if you are going to ride it anyway, yes its 73 kms but if you take it slow, and its fairly dry, and your pillion walks in the bad bits you will be fine

putting your bike on a truck is sacrilege

you can detour via rio gallegos and ruta 27 but that adds 900 kms and defeats the adventure spirit of such a journey.

TIP
search: "estado de rutas" This is a government site, ie argentina.gov.ar

province Santa cruz

ruta 40

then look for the stretch you are interested in

PS you don't say where you are from or weight, your bike, your build, so advice is sort of generic

I did that route last week. There were sections where the gravel was very deep. That in itself wasn't too bad but the howling and gusting wind made it very difficult as I was often blown out of the gravel ruts across the deep gravel sections. That's when it became a bit dodgy. If you can, choose a day when it's not too windy and you should be fine.

It is the big boogyman everyone, including me, has concerns about. But after you ride all the way there from Alaska, it's just another road. The real challenge was the wind. So we used the 'Windy' app and picked a day with little to no wind.