Chasing dinosaurs June 24, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , trackbackMillions of years before grape vines came to La Rioja, dinosaurs ruled here, putting their muddy pawprints everywhere.
Today I drove to the valley of the Rio Cidacos, and saw the footprints in ancient mud. Its an odd drive, miles with hardly any cars and good roads, a bit like New Zealand really. Most of the way, it is red stratified sandstone, coming at odd angles out of hills, the earth has been moving here. Some spectacular sandstone hills have castles on top, looking like they were carved out of the living rock as perhaps they were. When I sort out the camera problems, I’ll post a picture of the spectacular hill in the middle of Arnedo, castle atop.
I stopped at Arnedillo for a break and to walk along the riverbank for a while, part of a longer track that would make a nice couple of days walking. Its a pleasant wee village, with the church at the bottom, rather than the usual top. Later I came back for lunch.
The dinosaurs themselves were all over the area, and there are many signposted sighting points, as well as a good interpretation centre at Enciso, a little further down the river. The first site out of Enciso has been set up as a park, with life-size models for children to play on and to give grownups a sense of scale. It was the only one with parking, a difficulty on small rural roads.
In some ways, I was surprised at how small the footprints were. A huge, three toed dinosaur created footprints only about 30 cm long, which seems small considering how large the model was.
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