Sierra and dehesa
This route surrounds the Sierra del Horno, one of the external alignments located on the northern margin of the Sierra de San Pedro. It is formed by quartzites of the Ordovician age, very hard and resistant to erosion, which originate rocky ridges on the line of peaks. On its slopes, covering the slate materials, there is a stony-clayey soil, sometimes several meters thick, whose materials come from the alteration and dragging of the quartzites. This acidic soil, poor in mineral salts, maintains a Mediterranean-type scrub vegetation formed by holm oaks and cork oaks with very dense understory based on innumerable species of shrubs and bushes: strawberry trees, durillos, olivillas, cornicabras, rockrose, brooms, ahulagas, lavender, rosemary, etc. The dehesa is the most characteristic landscape formation in Extremadura. It is not a natural ecosystem as it results from human intervention for agricultural and livestock purposes on the primitive forest (holm oak and / or cork oak forest and, sometimes, also oak and gall oak). It appears as a cleared forest formation with scattered trees and grassland, since the shrub elements have been removed.
Boquerón by Juan Ramos
Narrow pass that allows you to easily cross the quartzite mountain range, as well as the Puerto De Clavín in the vicinity of the beginning of the route. These posts originate from the presence of faults that interrupt the continuity of the hard quartzite strata and facilitate the erosive work of geological agents, especially water. Some of them are very striking due to very rough rocky outcrops, which are used by some birds to nest. It has a great natural wealth: pastures and acorns for cattle in montanera, wood, firewood and charcoal, cork from cork oaks, cereal crops, shelter for birds (cranes, pigeons, etc.) Trees enrich the soil with the pumping of water and you come out from the subsoil and with the remains of its leaves, while regulating the microclimate under them. The pastures mainly made up of grasses, legumes and composites, are used for agricultural and livestock exploitation. In addition, there are other uses such as rural tourism, hunting, fishing and bull breeding. The pasture is unstable and if grazing and majadeo are abandoned, the grasslands are invaded by gamones, gorse and labiate, at the same time that shrubs such as rockrose, broom and ahulagas appear.
