Potrerillos

We drove up to Potrerillos on a whim, on a day we had originally blocked out for a fifth winery visit, and it turned out to be the better decision by a wide margin. The reservoir appears almost without warning as the road climbs out of Mendoza’s vineyard flatlands — a sheet of impossible turquoise water pinched between dry, rust-colored mountains, dammed decades ago and now the province’s default answer to “where do we go for a day outside the city.”

The Water and the Wind

The color comes from glacial sediment, and it changes through the day as the light moves, pale green in the morning and almost electric blue by early afternoon. Kayaks and small sailboats were out when we arrived, and a kitesurfer was making the most of a wind that had been an inconvenience to us on the drive up.

Base Camp for Bigger Things

Potrerillos is also where a lot of Mendoza’s harder adventure sports actually launch from — rafting on the Mendoza River just downstream, canyoning trips into the surrounding gorges, and mountain biking routes that climb into the foothills toward Vallecitos. Lia opted for a gentler afternoon of paddleboarding while I went out with a rafting group on a stretch of river that had more rock-dodging than I’d anticipated from a “moderate” trip description.

We ate trout that evening at a small restaurant overlooking the water, caught that morning according to the owner, though I suspect that claim gets made regardless of the actual timeline. It was good enough that I didn’t push the point.

When to go: October through April for warm-weather water sports and the clearest reservoir color; weekdays if you want the beaches to yourselves, since Mendocinos treat this as their closest lake escape.