Sierra Pintada – Cuesta de los Terneros – El Sosneado – Overo Volcano
The height varies between six hundred and fifty to four thousand seven hundred and fifty metres above the sea level. There is an asphalt road until El Sosneado, after that there is a dirt road suitable for high vehicles or four-wheel drive. The options in this area are mostly for adventure tourism, as it is a high mountain trail, besides the path reaches the highest altitudes in the province and one of the highest in the country.
This tour of four hundred eighty kilometres requires a full day, but it is advisable to enjoy two days at least. It is operable only in the summer, from El Sosneado upwards.
From San Rafael to the Southwest, going through the National Route 144, thirty-three kilometres away, there is the Cuesta de los Terneros where there is a viewpoint of the city of San Rafael and its surroundings.
The next site of interest is the village of El Sosneado. There is an inn that in addition to the room and food, offers excursions in off-road vehicles, horses rental to visit the Laguna Blanca (three kilometres) or for other excursions such as going to the aircraft from the Uruguayan athletes (plane crash of 1973), etc. There you should take the Provincial Route 220 (dirt road) going fifty-five kilometres away from the Laguna del Sosneado, the Cueva del Indio, and ten kilometres farther, the springs of Sosneado (no infrastructure), all of this at the foot of the imposing Cerro Sosneado, 5189 metres high above the sea level.
Going a little further, on a cornice path you can reach the crater of the Overo Volcano, which was a major source of sulphur during decades of ’50 and ’60. There tourists can research the height of four thousand seven hundred and fifty metres with their vehicles. The return is done by the same roads.
