The Las Hermosas National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural Las Hermosas) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

located in the Valle del Cauca and Tolima departments, at the highest elevation of Cordillera Central range in the

Andean Region of Colombia The Andean region, located in central Colombia, is the most populated natural region of Colombia. With many mountains, the Andes contain most of the country's urban centers.wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s and 387

glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

General

The park is bounded by the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...

and

Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Magangue in Bolivar Department, and th ...

. Its elevation ranges from to

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. The area has a

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

, formed by the surrounding rivers, but it is hard to access. It is of historical importance as it was one of the most defended areas by the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

Pijao people The Pijao (also Piajao, Pixao, Pinao) are an indigenous people from Colombia. Ethnography The Pijao or Pijaos formed a loose federation of Amerindians and were living in the present-day department of Tolima, Colombia. In pre-Columbian tim ...

s against the Spanish

Conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

s. Three types of

geological formations A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

are found in the area: intrusive

igneous rocks Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causin ...

and formations from more recent

volcanic eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...

Climate

Average yearly rainfall is 2000 mm at the lower elevations and 1500 mm above . Average temperature is 24 °C at the lower elevations, and 4 °C at the highest. December–March and July–August are dry periods.

Flora and fauna

Noteworthy plants include: wax palm trees, ''

Podocarpus oleifolius ''Podocarpus oleifolius'' is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. ''Podocarpus oleifolius'' contains one sub ...

'', ''

Aniba perutilis ''Aniba'' is an American neotropical flowering plant genus in the family (biology), family Lauraceae. They are present in low and mountain cloud forest in Caribbean islands, Central America, and northern to central South America. Description ...

'', ''

Ocotea heterochroma ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'', ''

Chuquiraga jussieui ''Chuquiraga jussieui'', the flower of the Andes, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a low shrub, reaching a height of about 75 cm. ''Chuquiraga jussieui'' is an endangered flower. Flowers are pale yellow or oran ...

'', '' Passiflora tenerifensis'' and Andean Walnut. The most diverse group of fauna are the birds, followed by the mammals and reptiles. Recorded mammals include: spectacled bear,

mountain tapir The mountain tapir, also known as the Andean tapir or woolly tapir (''Tapirus pinchaque'') is the smallest of the four widely recognized species of tapir. It is the only one to live outside of tropical rainforests in the wild. It is most easily d ...

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the popul ...

pudú The pudus (Mapudungun ''püdü'' or ''püdu'', es, pudú, ) are two species of South American deer from the genus ''Pudu'', and are the world's smallest deer. The chevrotains (mouse-deer; Tragulidae) are smaller, but they are not true deer. The ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

. Fish in the glacial lakes feed on

green algae The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...

blue-green algae Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

and unicellular

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

found throughout the 387 lakes.

Footnotes

References

* * {{authority control National parks of Colombia Protected areas established in 1977 Geography of Valle del Cauca Department 1977 establishments in Colombia Tourist attractions in Valle del Cauca Department