Squiggling east from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, the mighty Santa Cruz River in Argentina"s Patagonia region flows over some of South America"s sparsest terrain. Over the centuries, some of history"s most notable explorers have been drawn to the winding waterway: Ferdinand Magellan"s 1520 expedition discovered its coastal delta, and Charles Darwin (on the same voyage that took him to the Galápagos Islands) studied the area"s ecosystem during a grueling 1834 side trip up the river. Even now, very few settlements exist along the 240-mile course of the Santa Cruz, considered the last major free-flowing river in Patagonia.
Meandering through Patagonia
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
-
Old Rock Day
-
The Monastery of Roussanou, Greece
-
Here’s why landmarks are going dark
-
A day to celebrate the sun
-
Rosa Parks Day
-
Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii
-
Our Lady of the Rocks
-
International Day for Biodiversity
-
Barn owl, England
-
Autumn’s swan song
-
Festivus
-
Happy Independence Day!
-
Windmills in Kinderdijk, the Netherlands
-
Vineyards in the Mosel Valley, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
-
Ingenuity in action on the Santa Monica Pier
-
Visiting Ahch-To on Star Wars Day
-
Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park
-
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Brazil
-
Pamukkale, Turkey
-
Fall comes to Pando
-
FOR FOREST by Klaus Littmann
-
Walruses in Svalbard, Norway
-
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
-
Taughannock Falls State Park
-
The parenting of a piping plover
-
Victory Day in Valletta
-
A Flag Day tradition
-
A toast to California!
-
Celebrating National Panda Day