Picos de Europa National Park

Barely twenty kilometres from the Bay of Biscay, the Picos de Europa rise as a wall of grey limestone pinnacles, the most dramatic stretch of the Cantabrian Mountains. Local tradition holds that the name comes from sailors returning from the Americas, for whom these jagged summits were the first sight of Europe. The national park that protects them spreads across about 670 square kilometres shared by Asturias, Cantabria and Castile and León, and few places in Europe pack such contrasts into so little space: from 75 metres above sea level on the Deva river to 2,648 metres on the Torre de Cerredo, the range's highest peak, the drop is more than two and a half kilometres.

The mountains are built of thick Palaeozoic limestone, carved by glaciers during the Ice Ages and riddled since by the dissolving action of water into sinkholes, deep shafts and enormous cave systems. Three massifs are separated by gorges of startling depth, the most famous being the gorge of the river Cares, whose path cut into the cliff between Poncebos and Caín threads along the wall high above the water. The emblem of the range is the Naranjo de Bulnes, known locally as Picu Urriellu, a 2,519-metre tower whose sheer west face, some 550 metres tall, is the most celebrated big wall in Spanish climbing; it was first scaled in August 1904 by Pedro Pidal and the shepherd Gregorio Pérez, known as El Cainejo. Beech and oak forests cloak the lower slopes, and the high pastures are home to the Cantabrian chamois, the park's symbol, along with Iberian wolves, brown bears, capercaillie and the reintroduced bearded vulture.

Pedro Pidal was also the driving force behind the park itself. Created in July 1918 as the Covadonga Mountain National Park, it was the first national park in Spain, centred on the glacial lakes of Enol and Ercina above the shrine of Covadonga, where tradition places the battle of 722 that began the Christian reconquest of the peninsula. The park was enlarged to its present extent in 1995 and later years, and UNESCO recognised it as a biosphere reserve in 2003. Shepherding communities still use the high meadows, and the strong blue cheese of Cabrales is still matured in the natural limestone caves of the area.

Getting there

The usual gateways are Cangas de Onís and Arenas de Cabrales on the Asturian side, Potes in Cantabria and Posada de Valdeón in León. The nearest airport by distance is León (LEN), about 95 km to the south, but Asturias Airport (OVD) and Santander (SDR) on the coast are the more common points of arrival. The narrow-gauge coastal railway between Oviedo and Santander stops at Arriondas and Llanes, both within reach of the northern edge of the park.