Cares Trail

For about 12 kilometres between the villages of Caín and Poncebos, a path cut into sheer grey limestone hangs halfway up the walls of the Cares gorge, passing through rock tunnels and over bridges while the river runs far below. Known in Spain as the "divine gorge", the Cares separates the western Cornión massif of the Picos de Europa from the central Urrieles, and the peaks on either side climb above 2,000 metres, with Torrecerredo reaching 2,648 m. The trail is the most frequented route in Picos de Europa National Park, walked by an estimated 300,000 people a year.

The path exists because of a power station. Between 1915 and 1921 workers blasted a ledge through the gorge to build a long water channel feeding the hydroelectric plant at Camarmeña–Poncebos; the terrain was so steep that much of the work was done with dynamite by men hanging from ropes. Some 500 people took part, many of them from Galicia, and eleven died, mostly in falls. Between 1945 and 1950 the narrow maintenance path was widened to around two metres and turned into the route used today. Before it existed, the only link between the two valleys was a detour of more than 100 km around the mountains, and for a long time the path was the only connection in winter, when snow closed the passes. In 2011 part of the cliff collapsed at one of the tunnels, and a cantilevered walkway was later built out over the drop to bypass the fall.

The river itself is short – only about 54 km – rising in the valley of Valdeón in the province of León and crossing into Asturias inside the gorge before joining the Deva about ten kilometres from the Cantabrian Sea. The walls are full of hollows and caves, some used as shelters for the sheep that graze the surrounding slopes, and steep side gullies known as canales climb from the river to high mountain pastures on both flanks. Caín, where the valley of Valdeón suddenly closes into the defile, is one of the most remote villages in the range, and the true gorge ends at the bridge of Poncebos.

Getting there

The northern end at Poncebos is reached by the AS-264 road, which follows the Cares from Arenas de Cabrales in Asturias; the southern end at Caín is reached by road from Posada de Valdeón in León. The nearest larger town in a straight line is Sama (Langreo), about 65 km away. The nearest airport in a straight line is León Airport (LEN), about 95 km to the south, across the mountains; Asturias Airport (OVD) lies at a similar distance to the north-west.