Happy July 4th!!
Avenue Mariscal Castilla descends 2815 feet to Urubamba and the floor of the Sacred Valley in 14 broad switchbacks. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Urubamba District. This series captures the experience.
Avenue Mariscal Castilla descends 2815 feet to Urubamba and the floor of the Sacred Valley in 14 broad switchbacks. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Urubamba District. This series captures the experience.
Avenue Mariscal Castilla descends 2815 feet to Urubamba and the floor of the Sacred Valley in 14 broad switchbacks. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Urubamba District. This series captures the experience.
Avenue Mariscal Castilla descends 2815 feet to Urubamba and the floor of the Sacred Valley in 14 broad switchbacks. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Urubamba District. This series captures the experience.
Avenue Mariscal Castilla descends 2815 feet to Urubamba and the floor of the Sacred Valley in 14 broad switchbacks. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Urubamba District. This series captures the experience.
Avenue Mariscal Castilla descends 2815 feet to Urubamba and the floor of the Sacred Valley in 14 broad switchbacks. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Urubamba District. This series captures the experience.
Avenue Mariscal Castilla descends 2815 feet to Urubamba and the floor of the Sacred Valley in 14 broad switchbacks. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Urubamba District. This series captures the experience.
The prominent, sharp distant peak is Pumahuanca
A few minutes past Chinchero the Avenue Mariscal Castilla bends dramatically to reveal this first view of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
We overlook Raqch’i village and rich farmland to the distant Andean peaks, down below, out of view, is the Urubamba River that created the valley. The prominent, sharp distant peak is Pumahuanca of the Urubamba Mountain Range, at 17,448 feet (3.3 miles) altitude it is “only” the 179th highest of the Andes. Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Huayllabamba District.
crack of dawn
In this post we start the day of my posting “Family Trek“, July 19, 2008, when, well before the sun rose at 6:23 am Mountain Daylight Time (the Navajo Reservation observes daylight savings, the rest of Arizona does not), Pam and I were at the Spider Rock Overlook.
Most visitors to the canyon make use of a system of roads and parking lots next to strategic views. There is the White House Overlook we visited our first day, July 18, to hike from the trailhead into the canyon. There are also, on the south side of the canyon:
While getting ready I scoped out the location for interesting visual tropes. Utah Junipers are exceptionally hardy shrubs, stressed individual plants grow into compelling forms shaped by hardship. As the sun rose, this specimen emerged from the gloom and caught the first sun rays.
Enjoy!!
Where is the ironing board?
The setting sun’s glow on the end point of Upper Siphon Draw trail, The Flatiron.
The mountain was formed by a series of volcanic eruptions between 20.5 and 18 million years ago. The west face of the mountain is composed of dacite lava and rhyolitic tuff. The overlying tuff was deposited during an eruption which created a collapse caldera bounded by faults. Dome resurgence reactivated these faults, causing uplift of the caldera floor which juxtaposed the softer tuff and more resistant dacite. Differential weathering caused the outer tuff to erode faster, leaving the dacite cliffs exposed and creating the prominent mountain visible today.
The Flatiron, the mesa-like projection above us in this view, is long solidified dacite lava. The word dacite comes from Dacia, a province of the Roman Empire which lay between the Danube River and Carpathian Mountains (now modern Romania and Moldova) where the rock was first described. Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, Maricopa County, Arizona
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