In my lonely planet travelbook and in this community I encountered various distinctive ways how to reach these remote natural parks. In the end I decided to go into the Province capital of La Rioja which is still about 2 hours or 200 km from the park entrances but by this the next big city in reach. It's a pleasant town in autumn with summer like weather every day- I can imagine that it gets too hot in real summer here. We checked out the information kiosk on the plaza and it was giving us some outdated prices of the Talampaya park. Information about Ischigualasto was hardly available as this park which is connecting to Talampaya park at the province border of La Rioja and San Juan is on the wrong side of the province border. It's even greyed out on the tourist maps like anything else outside the province. Argentinian tourist information counters really don't care about how their customers are thinking especially when it comes to provincial borders. Nevertheless they could give us contacts of travel agencies and rental car services which was helpful. As we wanted to visit both parks and it became clear that Ischigualasto which is commonly named Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) is not reachable by public transport. The tourist office guy even said that not all buses from La Rioja to Villa Unión pass by Talampaya but that it could be that they take a more northern route nowadays. But again this could be true maybe only for some buses and it's best to check it out yourself in the terminal. As Els had been writing that visiting both parks would take at least 12 hours it also became clear that a rental car was not the solution as we would be way too tired during the actual visits if we had to drive around 500 km on this day additionally. So we went to the two tour agencies and fixed a trip as they nicely offer trips that combine both parks. In the end we got a private driver which was nice however also much more expensive than if we had found 2 more fellow travellers that would share the car and cost with us. We paid travel GIT 50.0000 ARS (price for 2. currently with blue dollar rate a bit more that 100 EUR). It would have been 36.000 ARS with two other visitors. VGP offered us 54.000 ARS and only 27.000 ARS if we were 4. However we had a better feeling with travel git. Both have offices close to the central plaza. In the oarks there are additional fees. We paid 5.000 ARS for the entry and tour in Ischigualasto and 7.000 ARS for the entry in Talampaya plus 20.000 ARS for the 4x4 Tour in the park. So quite an expensive day but all components of the WHS visited. 
 
WE started in La Rioja at 06:30 a.m. and reached Ischigualasto visitor center at 08:40 a.m.. There is a nice museum with displays on the current flora and fauna and the dinosaur excavations. Also there is a bar and baños. At 09:30 a.m. the tour started which worked as a Caravan set-up, so each visitor car lined up and drove through the park. There was also a bus I guess for people without car. In the first car was the guide that made explainstions at each of the 5 stops as we had left the cars. Basically the drive is through an old lake that has dried out a long time ago. It did contain salt and fresh water, where the salt water was coming from the Pacific Ocean. Due to the errosion and the fact that this place was the last with water in the area many rock formations but also dinosaur fossils can be found here. You get to see sediment "balls" and slim rock towers during the ride. Of course humans have interpreted various objects into the formations which explains why they all have names. Additionally there is a small museum again with baños and bar that explains how palenthologists work in a movie and with a guide. The final stop is the "mushroom" which is in front of the impressive 250m Wall of red rock which forms the border of San Juan to La Rioja and by this the border to Talampaya National Park. I also found interesting that these famous rock formations sometimes break due to Wind and earthquakes. The "submarine" has lost a tower by this in 2015.  
 
The Talampaya NP was another 40 minute drive away, however it was a very different experience to visit it. The 4x4 truck that took us into the center of the park stopped in front of another wall of red coloured rocks. In Ischigualasto everything is rather white whereas Talampaya is completely red- the sand and the rocks. In the first stop we saw some petroglyphs with guanacos. We didn't understand too much as we were the only non- fully Spanish speaking people however after asking we also got easier explainations at later stops. In Talampaya there are not so many fossils but it's more about the gigantic rocks and the valley between them that one drives through. The rocks easily reach 300m from the floor and are maximal steep. In the valley there is a microclimate as sometimes alao rainwater (mainly in summer) runs through. By this trees are growing and some animals like maras live here. The fruits of the carob were food ressource for the aboriginal people. Also the valley has a really nice echo effect. Afterwards agaib some significant rock formations like the monk are visited. Most impressive is the Cathedral though as it's a huge, red wall in front of you. In the last stop which is not taken by the minibusses one walks through the Shimpa valley which has a bit lower rocks to both sides and is more narrow. The guide demonstrated the diffrrent sediment layers here however it was not really a necessary stop for me. Also the two snack stops with wine, sparkling wine, soup and coffee were surprising but not really needed. After three hours we returned to the visitor center where we walked a small dinosaur trail, which is not super interesting and then we drove the two hours back to La Rioja.  
 
I found intersting that there seems to be really a mixed opinion on the protection status of the parks. The guide in Ischigualasto said as a Provincial park we can take much better care of the area. And in Talampaya the guide was saying that if Talampaya was a proncial park then nothing would be really protected and only the NP status really protects an area. In addition it was interesting that the Ischigualasto area was traded in the 1960s from La Rioja to San Juan province in exchange for something else. It's all a bit strange. 
 
I can recommand visiting the two parks and specifically also both not just one. Sure there are similarities but I found the experience really different. Talampaya is more about huge rocks whereas Ischigualasto is about dinosaur fossils and strange rock formations and more this moon- like landscape. I can also recommand to do it in 1 day even though it's a tough day. However if you don't have a car and can stay in a closeby town it's worth combining both to not drive super much in a day.