There's a Rock Forest about an hour north of Huaraz called Hatun Machay, which is a popular rock climbing spot for tourist. For us, it was the location for Peru 17 Ancash's last hike, prior to everyone ending their service and scattering to the wind. Unfortunately, Ali (one of the 5 Peru 17ers) was sick and couldn't make it. To fill in her place we found this random backpacker, Brandon, who happened to be living Bozeman, MT. Small world.
The Rock Forest is privately owned, and is home amazing bouldering, native people tending their flocks of sheep, and cave paintings. It's also cool to think about how thousands of years ago, Giant Sloths (elephant sized beasts) may have roamed these areas prior to being out evolved by other mammals (
Ground Sloth Wiki).
For us, it was just a nice place to do a day hike and see the sights. Here's some pictures to enjoy as well:
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| The rock forest in distance. |
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| A closer shot of the rock forest. |
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| This is the family that is said to have lived here the century tending their sheep. |
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| Their dwellings. |
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| Cozy for any sized person or family. |
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| It'd be a fun location for lazertag. |
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| Window shot. |
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| Looking down on one section of the rock forest. |
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| Some of the rock faces popular with climbers. |
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| Another rock face. |
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| It rained a little on us that day, not too bad though. |
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| The terrain ungulates a lot, and we found ourselves climbing a lot to make our loop. Here's looking back on our hike. |
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| Leaving the forest gives you this view of the Cordillera Blanca. |
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| Jeff and I's last hike, our other planned hike fell through... due to a unexpected stomach flu and poorly timed cock fight. |
