Kicker Rock (León Dormido)
Roca León Dormido
Interesting facts
- Charles Darwin already used the English name in 1844, describing Kicker Rock in his geology of the Beagle voyage as about 400 feet high and made of compact tuff.
- Darwin argued that the rock was once the solid filling of a crater's central hollow, whose sloping outer walls the sea had since worn completely away.
- San Cristóbal, then called Chatham Island, was the first island in the Galápagos that Darwin landed on, in September 1835.
- Tuff cones form when rising magma meets seawater: the steam explosions shatter the lava into ash, which settles and slowly hardens into rock.
- Underwater the channel between the two halves is roughly 35 metres deep at its mouth and shallows to around 12 metres further in.
- Below the waterline the vertical walls are hung with black coral and sea fans, where schools of king angelfish gather.
- Hammerhead sharks tend to patrol the entrances of the channel, while Galápagos sharks and eagle rays move through the passage itself.
- Red-billed tropicbirds nest on the cliffs alongside the boobies and frigatebirds.
Why it is worth it
León Dormido — "sleeping lion" — is a pair of sheer rock walls rising straight out of the Pacific off the coast of San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos. English-speaking sailors called it Kicker Rock, because seen from one side the silhouette resembles a boot; from the other, the long, low profile does look like a lion, or a sea lion, lying asleep on the water. The cliffs rise some 140–150 metres above the sea, pale, streaked and vertical, and they stand miles from any other land, which makes them one of the most arresting sights in the archipelago.
The rock is what remains of a volcanic tuff cone — a crater built not of lava but of densely compacted volcanic ash, laid down in explosive eruptions and then almost entirely worn away by the ocean. Erosion has cut the remnant in two, leaving a narrow channel of deep water between the halves. Looking up from a boat into that slot, with the walls closing overhead, is the moment that visitors remember.
The water around the rock is as much the attraction as the stone. Where deep ocean currents strike the vertical walls, nutrients are forced upwards and the channel becomes a feeding ground: snorkellers and divers here regularly meet Galápagos sharks and whitetip reef sharks, rays, sea turtles and sea lions, and hammerheads sometimes appear in deeper water. Above, Nazca and blue-footed boobies plunge-dive for fish and frigatebirds wheel along the cliffs, trying to rob them of their catch.
The rock lies within the Galápagos National Park and marine reserve, and visits are made only with licensed guided boat tours, either for snorkelling or for scuba diving. The cooler season, roughly May to November, brings the richest marine life.
Getting there
León Dormido lies about 17 km north-east of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the main town of San Cristóbal Island, roughly an hour and a half by boat. San Cristóbal Airport (SCY), just outside Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, has flights from Guayaquil and Quito on the Ecuadorian mainland. The rock can be visited only on licensed day tours or liveaboard cruises departing from the island.
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