ESPAÑOL

• I was here 5 days in June 2015, 7 in June 2016, 2 in June 2002, 3 times during 5 days during Easter when I was between 10 and 13 years and several times in summer when it was even younger.
• Number of days needed: the park is huge, to get a good idea of ​​the best sites I recommend at least 5 days.
• My score: 4/5.

I feel respect to write about this natural park, because by its relative proximity to the place of residence, is my father’s favorite, perhaps his favorite place in the world, a nature lover who has been visiting it every two years for 40 years and that therefore knows its secrets, trails and corners much better than me:

• It is the largest protected natural space in Spain and the second in Europe. It does not reach the category of national park, so it is less crowded than it could be expected except in summer and Easter. The rest of the year, its enormous size will allow us to enjoy nature with a sense of relative solitude as soon as we move away from the population centers.
• The most common landscape is limestone-dolomitic, with large rocky peaks and canyons through which rivers flow with abundant pools where to enjoy baths of icy water after hiking. There are dozens of hiking trails of all levels. A few years ago the GR247 was created; the largest multi-day route in Spain (310 circular kilometers + 168 km of optional variants) goes around the park and can be covered in approximately 2 weeks.
• Been between 500 and 2100 meters above sea level, the flora, although mostly of pine forest type, has certain variations within its more than 1300 species, 24 of them unique, the most famous being the Viola Cazorlensis, a type of pink violet. In some areas millenary yews can be found.
• The altitude and orography also condition the fauna: wild boars, deer, foxes, mouflons, fallow deer (these last two are not native) and mountain goats are still frequent, although not as easy to see as in the past due to the abusive hunting and the action of diseases (mainly scabies in the 90s). In the sky you can see examples of griffon vulture, golden eagle, kites, hawks and, if we are lucky, the almost extinct lammergeyer.

Sierra de Cazorla, as it is known throughout the Natural Park for short, is one of the best natural areas in the country, both for its multiple possibilities of hiking, as well as the varied routes because of altitude, fauna and flora. Now it will be my turn to listen to my father saying why I’m speking good of it, while he wants no one to go, apart from him.

WHAT TO SEE, HIKING ROUTES

• MUSEUM AND CINEGETIC PARK
• SENDERO RUTAS DEL SUR (SOUTHERN FOREST TRAIL, GR247)
  • E12: COLLADO ZAMORA HUT – BELERDA AND CAVE OF THE WATER IN TISCAR
  • E14: EL HORNICO – FUENTE ACERO HUT AND PATH OF THE FISHERMEN
  • E18+D7: PONTONES – TOBA – ANCHURICAS RESERVOIR
  • V247.3: PUENTE DE LAS HERRERÍAS – FUENTE ACERO HUT
  • D11: BEGIN OF GUADALQUIVIR RIVER AND MILENARY YEWS
• BOROSA RIVER
• GILILLO PEAK
• POYOS DE LA MESA
• NAVA DEL ESPINO
• NAVA DE PAULO

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

• WHEN TO GO
• TRANSPORTATION: HOW TO ARRIVE AND HOW TO DISPLACE
• WHERE TO STAY AND EAT
• DANGERS AND PROBLEMS

∇ Destinations / ∇ Spain / ∇ Andalusia / ∇ Jaén