barranca

plural barrancas

1. A steep-sided gulch or arroyo; a canyon or ravine.

   […]his hero, the Consul, is shot and thrown down the barranca followed by a dead dog.

   1994, Gordon Bowker, Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry

   2 more examples

   “Well: hardly,” said the Consul, softly as before, casting a suspicious eye for his part in the other direction at some maguey growing beyond the barranca, like a battalion moving up a slope under machine-gun fire.

   1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 138

   Have you ever been south of Monterey? / Barrancas carve the coastline / And the chaparral flows to the sea / 'Neath waves of golden sunshine

   1973, Al Jardine, “California Saga (California)”, in Holland, performed by The Beach Boys