Description
The geoforms of the valley of the Minor Guadiana, originating from the slow and inexorable erosive processes, are extremely striking. An enclave of great geomorphological interest, proposed as a natural monument: the Picos del Guadiana, stands out. It is a limestone crest where the petreous strata, arranged vertically, emerge from a cone of soft clays, forming a rocky alignment that resembles the teeth of a saw. The most imaginative say that it is the fossil of a colossal dinosaur that died by the river, without considering that there was no such channel in the Jurassic and that some of those prehistoric animals were huge, but not so much.
The Guadiana Menor is a very young river from the geological point of view. Until about 10,000 years ago, its basin was a large salty lake, to which it provided its waters and sediments numerous streams from Sierra Nevada, Filabres and the Macizo de Cazorla and Segura. Its current course arose in an accidental and violent way, perhaps due to the breaking of one of the margins of the lake produced by an earthquake, excavating deep ravines, leaving out the yermas clays, loaded with plaster and salts, rolling edges and marine sands, a means that makes it difficult to survive the living beings that inhabit them.
The depression that bears its name from this river is the most arid area in the province and one of the driest in Europe, recording annual rainfall that very rarely exceeds 250 mm. The consequence is that of a semidesertic, rotational and beautiful landscape, populated by highly specialized Stepparian vegetables to the middle, most herbs and small matas. Its biological uniqueness is enormous, having an endemic character (very small geographical area) more than half of the species present in the area. This proportion is only comparable to the biological exclusivity of the high betic mountain, where we find most of the most well-known endemisms in the Natural Park.
We suggest...
- Make the Desert Route, described in the Tourist Guide of Hinojares.
- Visit the Mirador del Lirio, with stunning views of the valley and the desert of the Natural Park. It is accessed (it is signposted) from the village of Fontanar, which is located about 5 Km from Pozo Alcón.
- Other unique points of this recommended visit are the necropolis ibera de los Castellones de Ceal, next to the village of Ceal, and the Salinilla de Chillar, located very close to Hinojares.
To visit the Picos del Guadiana and to visit the subdesert area of the Natural Park that corresponds to the Valle del Guadiana Menor, we will use the road section of the A-315 that links Bone with Pozo Alcón and Hinojares. The view of the Picos is at the beginning of these, in an enranche of the previous way, about 14 km from Hinojares and 19 km from Pozo Alcón.
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