Salado River is a river of Chile located in El Loa Province

El Loa Province

El Loa Province is one of three provinces of the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta . It is named after the longest of rivers in Chile, the Loa River...

, Antofagasta Region

Antofagasta Region

The II Antofagasta Region is one of Chile's fifteen first-order administrative divisions. It comprises three provinces, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla...

. It is formed at the confluence of over 30 spring

Spring (hydrosphere)

A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...

 branches emerging from El Tatio

El Tatio

thumb|A geyser bubbling at El Tatio geyser fieldEl Tatio is a geyser field located within the Andes Mountains of northern Chile at 4,200 meters above mean sea level. Contrary to some reports, it is not the highest-elevation geyser field in the world. Puchuldiza Geyser Field, Chile, and possibly...

 area. Flowing briefly south, it turns west and passes through a canyon carved in volcanic rocks.

In its middle course, the river receives the Toconce River (originated at the foot of Linzor

Linzor

Volcán Linzor is a stratovolcano on the border between Bolivia and Chile. In its vicinity lie Laguna Colorada and Cerro del León....

 volcano) from the north and the Caspana River from the south. In this area, a part of the flow of its affluents is diverted for providing water for domestic consumption in Antofagasta

Antofagasta

Antofagasta is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2002 census, the city has a population of 296,905...

 and Tocopilla

Tocopilla

Tocopilla is a city and commune in the Antofagasta Region, in the north of Chile. It is the capital of the province that bears the same name.Tocopilla celebrates its anniversary on September 29 every year with a big show the day before, which includes a parade down the main street of the city, food...

, among other localities.

After being joined by the two streams before mentioned, the Salado River enters in a floodplain area, which is used for pasturage by the inhabitants of the nearby localities, including Toconce

Toconce

Toconce is a small Chilean village located on the south rim of the Toconce River Canyon at 3,350 m above sea level. To the north, the landscape is dominated by the volcanoes Cerro Paniri, Cerro del León and Toconce....

, Caspana

Caspana

Caspana is a Chilean village located 85 km northeast of the city of Calama, in the gorge carved by the river that shared its name and that is a tributary of the Salado River. Agricultural terraces form part of the landscape of the area.-References:...

 and Aiquina. Then, the Salado again flows through a narrow canyon, where is found the so-called Devil's Bridge, a cut through rhyolite

Rhyolite

This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...

 terrain of 5 m wide.

Finally, the Salado empties into the Loa River

Loa River

The Loa River is a U-shaped river in Chile's northern Antofagasta Region. At 440 km long it is the country's longest river and the main watercourse in the Atacama Desert.-Course:...

, the main watercourse of the Chilean Norte Grande

Norte Grande, Chile

The Norte Grande is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It borders Peru to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Altiplano, Bolivia and Argentina to the east, and the Copiapó River to the south, beyond which lies the Norte Chico natural...

, about 3 km south of Chiuchiu.