Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park

Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park tickets and tours: which one to book

The Sierra de Grazalema is a knot of rugged limestone mountains in the north-east of the province of Cadiz, in Andalusia, in the south of Spain, extending into the province of Malaga, and it is the setting of the best known of the white villages, the pueblos blancos, which is how most visitors encounter it. It lies half an hour west of Ronda, an hour and a half from Seville, Jerez, Cadiz and Malaga, and coach tours from the coast and from Cadiz make a day's circuit of the villages; with a car one does much better. The roads themselves are part of the experience, above all that over the Puerto de las Palomas, the pass of the doves, at 1,357 metres, between Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra, the latter piled beneath a Moorish castle above a turquoise reservoir. Grazalema itself, a compact village of whitewashed houses with iron grilles under a great cliff, is the centre for walkers, with small hotels, and El Bosque, at the western gateway, has the main visitor centre.

The park has many signposted trails, and the essential thing to know is that the four finest, which enter the reserve zone, require a free permit, obtained in advance from the visitor centre at El Bosque, in person, by telephone or by electronic mail, for a limited number of walkers each day: the Pinsapar, some eleven kilometres, four to five hours, through the forest of Spanish firs from near Grazalema to Benamahoma; the Garganta Verde, a steep descent into a gorge four hundred metres deep, ending in a huge cavern; El Torreon, the climb to the highest summit; and the Llanos del Rabel. Among those that need none, the path along the Majaceite river from El Bosque to Benamahoma, five kilometres under poplars and alders beside a trout stream, is perfect for families, and the Salto del Cabrero and the route from Grazalema to the Puerto del Boyar are fine half-days. Local guides are available.

Visiting Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park: what you will see

The Sierra de Grazalema was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1977, the first in Spain, and a natural park by the regional government of Andalusia in 1984, the first in that region, covering about 534 square kilometres. It is a confusion of grey, fissured limestone ridges, cliffs and gorges, rising to 1,654 metres at El Torreon, the highest point of the province of Cadiz, riddled with caves and potholes, among them the Hundidero-Gato system, one of the largest in Andalusia, through which a river runs under a mountain, and the Pileta cave, near Benaojan, discovered by a farmer in 1905, which contains paintings of horses, goats, bulls and a large fish up to twenty thousand years old, and is shown by the descendants of its discoverer by lamplight. The mountains have a singular climate. They are the first high ground met by the wet winds from the Atlantic, which are forced up their western face, with the consequence that the village of Grazalema, in the far south of a country famous for drought, is the rainiest place in Spain, receiving more than two thousand millimetres in an average year, nearly all of it between October and April.

This moisture, and the shade of the north-facing slope of the Sierra del Pinar, have preserved the park's botanical treasure, the pinsapo, or Spanish fir, a dark, stiffly symmetrical conifer with short needles set all round the twig, a survivor of the forests that covered southern Europe before the ice ages, which now grows wild only in three small areas of the mountains round Ronda and, in a related form, in northern Morocco; the forest here, of some four hundred hectares, is the best preserved. Elsewhere the slopes carry holm oak, cork oak, the gall oak, carob and wild olive, and the flora includes a poppy and several other plants confined to these hills. Griffon vultures nest on the cliffs of the Garganta Verde and elsewhere in one of the largest colonies in Europe, several hundred pairs, and wheel over the villages all day; Bonelli's, golden, booted and short-toed eagles, Egyptian vultures, peregrines, eagle owls, choughs and blue rock thrushes are also present, with the Spanish ibex, roe deer, otters, genets and mongooses. For two and a half centuries this was the frontier between Christian Castile and the Moorish kingdom of Granada, which is why the villages perch on defensible heights under castles. Grazalema grew rich in the eighteenth century on its woollen blankets, which are still woven, Ubrique supplies fine leather goods to the luxury houses of Europe, Villaluenga del Rosario is known for its goat's cheese, and an English anthropologist's study of Grazalema, published in 1954, became a classic of the subject.

Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The park is open all year. Spring, from March to early June, is the best season, green, full of flowers and orchids, with streams running and the temperature ideal for walking; autumn, from October to November, after the first rains, is also fine, with the gall oaks turning. Winter is cool and can be very wet, with snow now and then on the summits, though clear days are frequent and beautiful.

Summer is hot and dry, 32 to 38 degrees, and from 1 June to 15 October, the period of high fire risk, the Pinsapar and Torreon trails are closed or may be walked only with an authorised guide, and parts of the Garganta Verde are restricted, as they are also in the vultures' nesting season in the early part of the year. Apply for permits a week or more ahead for weekends and holidays. Carry water, and a waterproof outside summer. Allow two to three days. Ronda is half an hour from Grazalema, Arcos de la Frontera forty minutes from El Bosque, Setenil de las Bodegas thirty, and Seville and Jerez an hour and a half.