The track to Cañadón Giménez deteriorates two kilometers south of town, discouraging casual visitors. Those who persist find themselves descending into a geological fold where the estuary has carved a secondary channel through volcanic rock. The beach spreads at the canyon's base—a mixture of sand and smooth pebbles flanked by walls that rise thirty meters, their stratified layers recording millions of years of sediment and stone.
“The estuary's most geologically dramatic beach, where canyon walls create a natural amphitheater and sheltered waters that reflect Patagonia's raw beauty.”
Aerial view of turquoise tropical bay
This is where Puerto Deseado's residents escape weekend crowds. The canyon's orientation blocks the predominant southwest wind, creating a pocket of calm even when the outer ría churns whitecaps. You'll walk a shoreline littered with driftwood—gnarled stumps carried hundreds of kilometers from Andean forests, bleached white by salt and sun. At low tide, the receding water exposes tide pools trapped in basalt depressions, each one a miniature aquarium of crabs, sea anemones, and darting silverside fry.
Sunset here is a study in geology and light. As the sun drops, the canyon walls transform—subtle mineral deposits glowing copper, iron-stained seams bleeding orange, while the protected water reflects the entire performance. Oystercatchers work the tideline with metronomic precision, their orange beaks flashing as they probe for mollusks. The only sounds: wavelets lapping stone, wind whistling overhead but never reaching you, and occasionally the distant bark of a sea lion from somewhere deeper in the estuary.
