Northern Chile’s Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world. It’s also a traveler’s delight with rock canyons, snow-capped volcanoes, geysers and turquoise lakes.

San Pedro de Atacama, the desert’s tourist hub, is an isolated hot spot of human hustle. Every evening I was there, a wind kicked up before sunset and dropped off as soon as darkness fell.

The geoglyphs in this 200 million-year-old desert have baffled scientists who are scratching their heads about where they've come from. Geoglyphs are a type of land art, occasionally rock art ...