Recently
back from a trekking in ‘Picos de Europa’ a quiet..ish Limestone Massif in
Can't believe we’ve not noticed the area before,
quite beautiful and in peak August I would have expected it to be busier. It’s
a great place for circular day hikes 6-8hrs with a number of good refuges in
the centre if you want to extend them further. HF Holidays, Exodus and High
Plains do guided hikes of various grades. There is a reasonable bus service but
taxis are probably a better bet to get you into the trailheads. For 7 days we
weren’t intending to slum it and so stayed at the Hotel ‘Picos de Europa’ http://www.hotelpicosdeuropa.com/interior.asp?MP=51
in the small town of
Arenas de Cabrales, we couldn’t fault the place
good food, great staff, good location, makes a great centre for the Northern
area.
Heartily recommend the local Cabrales Cheese and Natural
Cider!!!!, the cider has to be poured from a height, into a glass, the higher the
better to get a good head. You’re only supposed to put a small amount in the
glass at a time and drink it down straight, err most of the contents of my
bottle ended up on the floor, So take advantage of the device a some café/bars
have that pushes into the top of your bottle and pours at force give the same
effect. 
Plenty of sport climbing to be had, for easier access the
one day we took a trip round to the south side and took the Cable car at Fuente
De straight up to 2,000k this gets you onto the plateau amongst the odd
snowfields still present in August. Good maps available from The Map Shop at 
Don’t miss the classic Cares Gorge hike, it’s and out and
return route along a single same path that was cut into the sides the cliffs to
facilitate a hydro electric scheme. It’s an estimated 12k each way so 24k the
whole wack. The path at its narrowest is about a meter wide, there have been
some landslides so occasionally the path gets a tad more epic. I would recommend
in high summer you start the route as early as possible to avoid the heat of
the day and take about 3 litres of water for there and back although if you do
get all the way to Cain at the other end, there are some cafes to recharge your
bottles. This would make a pretty cool night hike during a full moon!!
The Picos has some stunning rock architecture, with soaring
peaks to match/better the Dolomites.
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