Barranca de Oblatos ( en, Oblatos Canyon), also known as Barranca de Huentitán, is a canyon carved by the

Río Grande de Santiago The Río Grande de Santiago, or Santiago River, is a river in western Mexico. It flows westwards from Lake Chapala via Ocotlán through the states of Jalisco and Nayarit to empty into the Pacific Ocean. It one of the longest rivers in Mexico, ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in the state of Jalisco. It lies on the northeast side of the municipality of Guadalajara and on the edge of the municipalities of Tonalá,

Zapotlanejo Zapotlanejo is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, there were 63,634 inhabitants in the municipality. The municipality has a territorial extension of 643.02 km2. Toponymy Zapotlanejo is a ...

Ixtlahuacán del Río Ixtlahuacán del Rio is a town and municipality in the center of the Mexican state of Jalisco, a little less than from state capital Guadalajara. It stands at above sea level; the climate is semi-arid, with a mild winter and an average annual t ...

and

Zapopan Zapopan () is a city and municipality located in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Part of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, the population of Zapopan city proper makes it the second largest city in the state, very close behind the population of ...

in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area. Its beauty and structure make it a slightly smaller scale version of the Grand Canyon in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and

Barranca del Cobre Copper Canyon (Spanish: Barrancas del Cobre) is a group of six distinct canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico that is in size. The canyons were formed by six rivers th ...

in Chihuahua.''Barranca de Oblatos (Jalisco)''
"Escuela Secundaria 5 Mixta U" It includes approximately and it has an average depth of . The difference in elevation between the rim of the canyon () and the river () is at the point of a funicular. This canyon is also named Oblatos-Huentitán due to the areas in the city crossed by it, called Oblatos and Huentitán respectively.

Human history

Several important events in the history of Guadalajara occurred in the canyon. In the 19th century, during the

Spanish Conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

combat between the indigenous natives of Huentitán and the Spaniards took place in this area. This was also the location of many battles of the Mexican Revolution and

Cristero War The Cristero War ( es, Guerra Cristera), also known as the Cristero Rebellion or es, La Cristiada, label=none, italics=no , was a widespread struggle in central and western Mexico from 1 August 1926 to 21 June 1929 in response to the implementa ...

. But perhaps the most interesting story about this canyon is that of a flooding that took place during the ''Porfiriato'' era (1876-1911).

Protected area

The Canyon is considered a biogeographic corridor since it is home to several types of vegetation:

Tropical Forest Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fore ...

Deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

Riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered chann ...

vegetation and secondary vegetation. Several species of flora and fauna are endemic to the canyon. It is often visited by national and international investigators since it includes great biological diversity. On June 5, 1997 the canyon was declared a

Nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

, under the category of Zone subject to Ecological Conservation Protected Area by the

World Conservation Union The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

of all the area belonging to the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area because it is the most urbanized area. Great Horned Owls, Collared Peccaries, Bobcats, Gray Foxes, Opossums, Red-tailed Boas, Barn Owls, Leaf Cutter Ants and Vampire Bats are among the species making a home in the canyon. There are several urbanized areas that cover the eastern side of the canyon, complexes such as the

University of Guadalajara The University of Guadalajara ( es, Universidad de Guadalajara) is a public higher education institution in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. The university has several high schools as well as graduate and undergraduate campuses, which are distr ...

campus of the CUAAD Center of Art, Architecture and Design, the Guadalajara Zoo, and the now closed Guadalajara Planetarium. In addition to several residential areas, there are also sporting and recreational facilities that include soccer fields, basketball, tennis and fronton courts, picnic spaces, a running strip, a recreational park and an outdoor theater. There were plans to build the next

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...

in early 2008, the controversial Arcediano dam project and a high-rise project called ''Puerta Guadalajara'' (Guadalajara Gate) which would have included a shopping mall, a convention center, two hotels, two museums, 9 residential towers and two more corporate towers. None of these projects were started and it seems likely that they have now all been cancelled or postponed indefinitely. However, work is in progress on the construction of an art museum in the Mirador park, on the site formerly intended for the Guggenheim museum project.

References

External links

Barranca de Oblatos at TripAdvisor.comThe Birds of Barranca de Oblatos
- 1958 survey By ROBERT K. SELANDER and DONALD R. GILLER, of UTA {{Coord missing, Jalisco Nature reserves in Mexico Canyons and gorges of Mexico Landforms of Jalisco Tourist attractions in Jalisco Río Grande de Santiago Protected areas of Jalisco