An unexpected discovery

When I was planning this trip at home last winter, I ran across an article online saying that the Diputación de Malaga was establishing two new trails in Tolox, one highlighting the rocks of the area and the other the plants. The news article didn’t tell where the trails started, and there weren’t any helpful tracks on Wikiloc yet, so one of my main goals this morning was to get back by 2 PM from whatever walk we took in order to get to the information center before it closed and ask them about the trailhead locations.

We started out by exploring the area around the spa, marveling at the old buildings and the tall eucalyptus trees. As we worked our way up Cerro de Hijar, we came around a corner and there right in front of us was a big sign announcing Sendero Geológico. Even better, Sendero Botánico was right across the lane!

The Sendero Geológico was quite informative. It turns out that the Río Horcajos area in Tolox is the site of an eruption of peridotitic rocks of colossal size, the largest of this class of rocks known in the world . The outdoor display has boulder-size chunks of 14 different types of rocks prevalent in this area plus an explanatory timeline and map. We came away feeling like we could at least identify the peridotitic rocks with their greenish shadings.

The Sendero Botánico identifies 28 plants, some of them endemic to this area, in its kilometer-long loop. Parts of the trail are rocky and steep, meaning I was concentrating more on where I was putting my feet than on the plant names. I did learn that the bees love matagallo.

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