The Mountains of Central Spain - Walks Scrambles GR10 - Europe

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Updates

The Central Mountains

Of the millions of foreigners who visit Spain every year, only a tiny proportion spend time in the very heart of the country. Of these, many are merely en route to the coasts of southern Spain and Portugal while others are visiting Madrid and exploring the medieval splendours of the Meseta (the vast, high tableland of Central Spain) cities - Avila, Segovia, Salamanca, Toledo. For both these groups, speeding by car or coach in the torrid summer heat across the high rolling tableland of Central Spain, the crossing of the mountain chain which splits the Meseta into two must come as a welcome if incidental change. The endless ochres, golds and straw tones broken by the dusty green of scattered oaks, give way to grey granite and the cool shadowy colours of pine forest; arrow-straight roads and distant simple horizons become winding valleys and eruptions of rock.

This line of hills and mountains, known as the Systema Central, lies to the west and north of Madrid, running southwest-northeast from the Portuguese border to the Sierra de Pela, north of Guadalajara. With a length of 380km and reaching a height of almost 2600m, it is a barrier of some geographical and historical importance - the main watershed between the great river basins of the Duero (Douro) to the north and the Tajo (Tagus) to the south, as well as the border between the former kingdoms of Old and New Castile.

The system is made up of a number of overlapping or parallel chains of hills. This guide concentrates on the central and highest section: the Sierras of Gredos and Guadarrama. Although they share the same geology and general climate, the two areas offer very different types of walking. The Sierra de Gredos is the highest and most remote part of the system; there are few high roadheads and many long, wild valleys and ridges lead up to the main crest. Day walks are possible without commando fitness but few of them are circuits and it is an area best appreciated by staying overnight in the many glacial corries. Lower in height and more accessible, the Sierra de Guadarrama is a day walking area par excellence. The rich texture of river valley, pine forest, steep rock and rolling ridges, as well as a dense network of paths, furnish abundant possibilities for circular walks of various lengths.

The Sierra de Gredos and its extension to the northwest, the Sierra de Béjar, run on a roughly west-east line for some 130km between the towns of Béjar and San Martín de Valdeiglesias which lies 60km due west of Madrid. From there a number of lower parallel ridges connect the big range with the western end of Sierra de Guadarrama at San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where the chain swings northeast, dividing at the Puerto de los Cotos into two branches. The northern branch carries the main watershed across the Puerto de Somosierra into the smaller ranges of the Sierra Pobre and Sierra de Ayllon.

While these mountains are clearly a less impressive barrier than the Pyrenees and lower than the Picos de Europa and Sierra Nevada, they offer many attractions for the adventurous walker: the climate is drier and sunnier than that of the northern ranges and less humid than in the coastal ranges. The scenery is sometimes as dramatic as in the bigger massifs, conditions underfoot are generally dry with few boggy areas and away from the most popular routes, you can be guaranteed almost perfect solitude. For five months of the year there is the choice of walking above or below the snow line and in the spring you can usually enjoy, from the foothills to the ridges, an unbroken carpet of flowers. Added to this is the special, less tangible quality of Spanish walking, in this big country of harsh, grand, empty scenery: the feeling of space as you follow the crest of a long ridge rising out of the infinite tableland, the heat on your back, the tangy resinous smell of cistus, the dry sandy paths and wheeling birds of prey.