It is not necessary to cross the pond or spend a few thousand euros to do it to see how erosion is capable of doing its thing, generating almost fairytale landscapes through thousands of years.
This is what happens today with this quiet getaway that places us in the heart of Toledo in just over an hour by car —from Madrid— and that we could describe as a excursion to a miniature Colorado Canyon.
For this we have to go to Toledo municipality of Burujónin the Torrijos region, and just 100 kilometers from Madrid is the perfect excuse for a first-class scenic or hiking getaway.
Here we will find the called Barrancas de Castrejón and Calañasometimes synthesized as Barrancas de Burujón, which is a protected area and declared a natural monument in 2010 by the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha.
Shaped by millennia of erosion, the waters of the Tagus River have been the ones that have been making a dent in the clayey gullies —hence their reddish colors, beautiful at sunset—, cut almost with a knife and marking a narrow gorge shaped by the wind and the Tagus for 25 million years.
It is inevitable that the desert landscapes of Arizona, portrayed a thousand times in the movies, come to mind when we set our sights on Las Barrancas, whose geographical area is also included by the municipalities of Albarreal de Tajo and La Puebla de Montalbánlocated very close to the Castrejón reservoir, but on its north shore.
Also bird protection areathe environment of Las Barrancas also has an Ecological Path of about two kilometers that allows us to take certain panoramic views of the area, perfect for a one-day getaway.
Designed at the whim of the Tagus River, which has gone finding its channel in the fragility of the claysthese gullies exceed one kilometer in length and heights of up to 500 meters in the Pico del Cambrón.
With certain similarities in orography and chromatism to the famous Médulas de LeónAlthough those with human intervention, the landscape of Burujón is drawn at the expense of the presence of the Tagus and the aforementioned Castrejón reservoir, both of which can be controlled from the viewpoint of the peak that we mentioned before.
Toledo (Urban) (Total Guide – Urban – Spain)
Back in civilization, take a look at the Burujón historical heritage with its 17th century Mudejar hermitage, the avant-garde church of San Pedro Apóstol or the palace of the Counts of Cifuentes will be the perfect culmination for this adventure one hour from Madrid.
Images | iStock JCMarcos / iStock Luis Camargo / iStock José Casarrubios
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