Pico Grande

The last couple of days have been sunny but hazy. So hazy that you can only see blue sky if you look straight up.  Nevertheless, we'll take this over the rain, any day. We did a little more touring on the motorbike and some hiking in the mountains.  

On Saturday we rode up to Miradouro Boca da Corrida to do a moderately rated hike to Pico Grande. When we arrived at the small parking lot, there were quite a few cars a lot of activity. It turned out that there was an off-road running event underway. A 44K race over what we were soon to discover, was very rough and hilly terrain.  We felt like we might be getting in the way of the competitors but the organizers encouraged us to continue with our plans. The track was wide enough to get out of the way of the competitors who were well spaced by this time in the event.

Although the trail-head viewpoint was only a 20 minutes ride for our apartment it is located at 1000 metres ASL. From the view point, one has an incredible view of the highest peaks and Nun's Valley below.  Unfortunately, the hazy conditions impeded the view.  Even with some editing these photos arn't the best.

Yes, that is snow you can see on these peaks. It is quite unusual. We read last night that police had to close the access road yesterday afternoon due to number of people who had come up to see the snow.

Looking from the viewpoint toward the highest peaks.

Even this was called "moderate trail" it had it's challenges. The volcanic ground, although grippy under foot, is very uneven. It was slow going. These trails, for the most part, traverse very steep terrain and guard rails are not common. These are serious hikes with spectacular views.   This one was almost 10K out and back. The destination is the peak called Pico Grande

Looking down into Nun's Valley

We only hiked a portion of the route before returning to the trail-head.

An interesting succulent growing on the rock