The Miscanti lagoon is located in the Altiplano and is one of the 7 sectors of the Los Flamencos national reserve.
 It is administered, like its neighbor Miñiques, by the Atacameña de Socaire Community (it is 28 km south of this town) in association with the National Forestry Corporation CONAF.
It is considered that it was precisely as a result of an eruption of this volcano that the two lagoons formed. Both are on the tourist route circuit of San Pedro de Atacama and are usually visited on a special excursion or in a larger one that also includes the Chaxa lagoon of the Atacama salt flat and the towns of Socaire and Toconao.