Montana Arcoiris, Peru

Rainbow Mountain lies about a 2-hour drive from Cusco.  That's not its actual name (that would be Vinicunca), but one can see why it might have become identified more commonly with the nickname:

(16522 ft)

The unusual striations of mineral deposit--irons, quartzites, sulfur, magnesiates--become showily distinct in the morning sun, so while it means leaving Cusco in the very wee hours in order to catch the early light on the slopes, I suppose it's worth it even for a non-early-riser like myself.

The adjacent canyon, to the south and west, is called Montana Roja--again, for pretty obvious reasons:

(photo from my vantage point at 16568 ft)

And the whole colorful area is presided over, on the northeast, by 20945 ft Mt. Ausangate:

There are a whole lotta people who visit this attraction every day, many of them on horses or ATVs, with a high percentage of the naive foot-traffic panting and doubled-over along the 2 or 3 miles up to the viewpoint from the parking lot, a consequence of an eye-popping nature area being relatively easily accessible to unacclimated tourists. 

But this scene is, as it turns out, a recent one, due to historical events that are both mindblowing and sobering.  Because this entire landscape was, as recently as 2013, covered in snow.  The glacier's retreat slowly revealed the stripey topography underneath, and now Rainbow Mountain is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Peru.  Apparently, the window for appreciating its colors is small, and closing, because the longer Montana Arcoiris is exposed, the more it gets seeded microscopically with the flora that will one day cover the soil here: the stripey soil will be hidden beneath grasses.  

This place makes me think once more about the paradox of my outdoor project this year.  I have been thrilled to be in these wild places, but my movements about the globe are certainly contributing carbon to the atmosphere, which is imperiling the very wild places I have come to love by traveling to them.