SOUTHERN SPAIN

Summary

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Just outside the tiny town of Zuheros is a trailhead with access into the gorgeous
Sierra Subbética Natural Park. We chose a path through a dry river canyon and enjoyed the scenery despite taking an unexpected route.

Trail Stats

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Trail Details

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On the southeast corner of Zuheros, where Calle Barrera makes a sharp turn, lays the main trailhead for the town. This will lead you into the interconnecting trail systems throughout Sierra Subbética Natural Park and offers the hiker a variety of options in regard to length and difficulty depending on your selected trail. Take heed that the trails are not particularly marked.

The trail begins heading up a switchbacking cobbled path. It seems the town residents use this area to walk their pooches as there were quite a few dogs galavanting across the hillside. The dogs could have cared less about our presence, they were happily doing dog things. For that matter the locals were busy chatting with each other and were also quite occupied.

Head uphill for a bit while enjoying the views back into olive tree country and the small town of Zuheros. The scenery is quite stunning.

Once you crest the ridge, the trail follows a ravine dotted with olive trees until you turn into Rio Bailon canyon. This was the most beautiful and majestic section of the hike. Take time to absorb the magnificence of the of the rock walls surrounding you. There are quite a few alcoves within stony walls. Rock climbing is allowed in this area, though signage noted scaling these alcoves was prohibited.

The trail will cross the Rio Bailon multiple times, though when we passed through the river was dry. Only a few small pools were noted here and there. I could imagine it’s quite a different experience when there’s water rushing through the canyon.

Further back in the canyon is Fuente de la Moral, a natural water fountain. Water is collected in cement troughs and runs freely from a natural spring. We were told by a local that the water is delicious.

Walking along, we left the canyon and ascended into the trees. We could view the surrounding tree covered hills. At one point we discovered the crumbling ruins of an old building. One could clearly make out a doorway in the piles and stacks of stone. Whatever the place used to be, it was situated in a lovely spot in the tree’s.

After a bit we came across another “fountain”, the Fuente de la Fuenfria. This one is situated in a valley meadow. There are a few of the water collection troughs, which looked quite green with plant-life and algae.

From here we turned left and followed a dirt road as our chosen path. Which was supposed to take us to a trail diverting us back toward the canyon. Actually, there were a few trails that could have taken us back, in theory, as seen in the Gaia app. However, there is now a rather new looking fence to the left that started just off this road. And the trails were somewhere behind that fence. I’ve read that in Spain you are allowed to cross through gates to gain access to trails beyond. Reviews of this trail system even mentioned this. There were indeed gates. But, these gates were dead bolted and quite effectively locked. That’s a pretty clear “none shall pass” if I’ve ever seen one. We passed two of these blocked trails due to fencing. So we kept walking down the road. Passed a cute building with a killer view up through the high meadow. We walked mainly through a valley here, skirting a few mucky areas, always following that road.

Eventually we came to a rickety fence and gate across the road. Hmm. Now what? The gate looked as if it was barely holding on. Neither of us seemed inclined to open it for fear it would fall over. Didn’t appear to be locked. Should we pass through? Turn around? Doug poked around a bit and found that this section of fencing did not meet up with the new fencing that we’d ceaselessly been following. There was a gap. He waved me over from the other side and, after scrambling through rocks and some rather prickly plants, I joined him once again. Granted, both of us were mildly skeptical that we were supposed to be there. Regardless we walked on.

The trail now altered between road and single track. That blasted fence was still there as well. Walked through a tree’d area. Eventually popped out and found another fountain, the Fuente de la Zaria. This one had two other hikers taking a late lunch break by its side. At least we weren’t the only ones out here.

By now we were beginning to seriously wonder how long this fence was. As in could we even get back to the canyon or were we going to wander down this road until it eventually spit us out onto the legit paved CV-247? That would be a long walk back on a true road.

Luckily, this fence eventually turned and we were free to turn left (west) onto another dirt road. This one should take us to a trail leading back into the canyon. Even luckier, the fence that we could see off and on while on this road did not further restrict us on our chosen path. We did note what appeared to be a horse coral along a section of this fence. I’ve no idea why a large section of this general area is fenced off. I thought it was all part of the park lands but I could be mistaken. Maybe they want to protect it?

There’s another ruined old building out here. This one a bit more intact than the previous. It still had bars covering one of the non existent windows. It’s a mystery why these old structures intrigue me quite so much.

Eventually we made our way back onto a normal single track trail. Granted we had to pass through what appeared to be old terraced or stone fenced areas where the trail seemed to ebb and flow in visibility. It was one of those, “well, we need to go in that general direction” kind of adventures.

Once back on the official trail, it did indeed take us back into the canyon. Which was just as delightful to walk down as it was to walk up. Spain is full of delightfully exquisite places and this is one of them. Despite the unintended route, we enjoyed this hike through the countryside.

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