Canyon EntranceYesterday, February 17th, we drove the six kilometers north from San Carlos to Nacapule Canyon for a short and beautiful hike.
From the center of town you turn north at the street next to Rosa’s Market (I’ll find the street name later) and just follow the paved road toward the airport. The Airport is the dirt strip with a windsock. (If you are reading this from your loft in New York City, the “paved road” is the one less primitive than all of the others, the one you would never go down in a million years. Potholes abound on the beginning section.) There are several scarred, graffiti tagged blue directional signs pointing the way, and one such sign at an intersection requires that you make a little turn to the right before the bent portion shows an arrow pointing left. Do not do anything too fast or you will probably make a wrong turn. Remember to try to keep heading toward the mountains and you should get there. It helps to use Google Earth in advance to sort of see where you will be going.
The mountains around this area appear to be a combination of metamorphosed claystones and conglomerates, with some obsidian intrusions and other “stuff”. The cliff faces reveal extreme folding of the sedimentary deposits under heat and compression. Even on a micro scale many of the rocks show folding and metamorphic transition. The obsidian is highly fractured. I would like to know more about the geology but did not have time to really crawl around much. The landscape suggests that the area once experienced more rainfall than it presently receives, with the erosion of hundreds of caves cut from the cliffs.
This was a mid-winter trek and I can imagine that summertime would make it a somewhat grueling hike, even with a fire hose of water dragging along. Bring water even in the winter.
The canyon is beautiful with its overhanging cliffs studded with palm trees, cactus and trees while a small trickle of water at its head makes you think twice about being in the Sonoran Desert. I did not bring a fishing rod. We went in the afternoon when the southerly half of the canyon is shaded and the rest is bright sun. The large tree found there, the one that almost looks like a fig tree, is called a Nacapule, which is, in fact, a fig tree.
The only drawback to the adventure is the graffiti found on some of the rocks and signage. So sad – why can’t people figure this out? This is not my country, but it is the world that I live in and it would be a better place without spray paint used inappropriately. I know that Jose’s love knows no bounds for Maria, but do I care? Buy her some flowers fella!
If you want to take part of a morning or afternoon, this is a very easy outing, even for me with my gimpy knee. Two thumbs up : - ) ♥
From the center of town you turn north at the street next to Rosa’s Market (I’ll find the street name later) and just follow the paved road toward the airport. The Airport is the dirt strip with a windsock. (If you are reading this from your loft in New York City, the “paved road” is the one less primitive than all of the others, the one you would never go down in a million years. Potholes abound on the beginning section.) There are several scarred, graffiti tagged blue directional signs pointing the way, and one such sign at an intersection requires that you make a little turn to the right before the bent portion shows an arrow pointing left. Do not do anything too fast or you will probably make a wrong turn. Remember to try to keep heading toward the mountains and you should get there. It helps to use Google Earth in advance to sort of see where you will be going.
The mountains around this area appear to be a combination of metamorphosed claystones and conglomerates, with some obsidian intrusions and other “stuff”. The cliff faces reveal extreme folding of the sedimentary deposits under heat and compression. Even on a micro scale many of the rocks show folding and metamorphic transition. The obsidian is highly fractured. I would like to know more about the geology but did not have time to really crawl around much. The landscape suggests that the area once experienced more rainfall than it presently receives, with the erosion of hundreds of caves cut from the cliffs.
This was a mid-winter trek and I can imagine that summertime would make it a somewhat grueling hike, even with a fire hose of water dragging along. Bring water even in the winter.
The canyon is beautiful with its overhanging cliffs studded with palm trees, cactus and trees while a small trickle of water at its head makes you think twice about being in the Sonoran Desert. I did not bring a fishing rod. We went in the afternoon when the southerly half of the canyon is shaded and the rest is bright sun. The large tree found there, the one that almost looks like a fig tree, is called a Nacapule, which is, in fact, a fig tree.
The only drawback to the adventure is the graffiti found on some of the rocks and signage. So sad – why can’t people figure this out? This is not my country, but it is the world that I live in and it would be a better place without spray paint used inappropriately. I know that Jose’s love knows no bounds for Maria, but do I care? Buy her some flowers fella!
If you want to take part of a morning or afternoon, this is a very easy outing, even for me with my gimpy knee. Two thumbs up : - ) ♥
1 comment:
That hike looks gorgeous (no pun intended). I love palm trees in the desert!
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