AN AFTERNOON ON THE CAMINITO DEL REY ANDALUSIA, SPAIN: a gallery (9 images).

Click on any image to enlarge.

I ARRANGED THESE IMAGES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER TO GIVE YOU A SENSE OF HOW IT FELT TO WALK THROUGH THIS ICONOIC HISTORICAL ENVELOPMENT.

"AS IF FROM A DREAM OF WINGS IN FLIGHT," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

   

"AS A DREAM MOVES," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"WITHIN THE HEARING OF A CANYON MAKER'S THOUGHTS," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

Moving deeper into the first slot canyon on the Caminito Del Rey. Desfiladero de Los Gaitanes (Canyon of the birds is a good name for this place. If I were a pigeon sized bird this would be like heaven. Cool, plenty of water and food, and to narrow for a larger predator bird to maneuver.

“ABANDONED STEPS TO THE OLD WATERWORKS TUNNEL," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

The first slot canyon on the Caminito del Rey gradually widens into a small valley. Just at the mouth of that opening you can see the steps that the early waterworks workmen made to get into the tunnel they bored through the many thousands of feet of limestone you have been walking above without even knowing it. 

"AN EARLY STAIRCASE TOWARD THE QUEST FOR PERMANENT WATER," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"A BUTTRESS FOR THOSE WHO FLY THROUGH OUR LADY DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES UNAWARE THEY HAVE PASSED THROUGH MILLIONS OF YEARS OF MEDITERRANEAN SEA FLOOR." 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 
(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), 
JOURNEYWORK OF 
THE EMBLASE TAJO DE LA ENCANTADA," 

 ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"WHAT BIRDS COULD SEE, 
LONG BEFORE THE TIME OF MEN,"
DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES, ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

The Caminito del Rey borders a small valley after it leaves the first slot canyon. All the images you have seen so far in this Malaga water works series are from the first slot canyon. The second slot canyon, in these next images, is not only graphically stunning, it is a revelation of enormous magnitude. This picture was taken about half way up from the river. The gorge could be somewhere between 600 to 800 feet deep from the the highest point down. What makes this place astounding is that the limestone, from which it was made, was laid down flat and horizontal over eons in the Mediterranean Sea. Here are those same rock layers tilted straight up vertical. The unmistakable evidence that these rocks were once on the floor of the Mediterranean are found in the perfectly preserved Ammonite fossils now appearing vertically on the upturned stratum like some prehistoric rock art. Ammonites are an extinct species that flourished 240 million years ago. If the seafloor were tilted up quickly, as the result of some cataclysm, the rock would have fractured and eroded away. This is a signal monument to the age of life on earth.

"THE SCULPTING HANDS OF THE EMBLASE TAJO DE LA ENCANTADA FLOW THROUGH THE CANYON OF THE BIRDS AND OUT, INTO THE PEACE OF AN ANDELUSIAN AFTERNOON," 
 MALAGA, SPAIN

The Caminito del Rey (the trail) and the Desfiladero de Los Gitanes (the slot canyon) ends abruptly at a sheer cliff face.  In this picture you can see the river flow out into a turquoise valley lake in the upper right corner.

To finish the walk, however, the walkway ascends up the sheer face, crosses a railroad and goes another half mile where you can chill out in the shade of trees and try to get your head around Iconically memorable space you have just seen.