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From Away.com
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Spain Off Track (Cont.)

Cola de Caballo (Horsetail) Falls in the Sierra Nevadas (Daniel Montero)
We could've easily spent the remaining days of our too-brief Spain excursion playing in the Pyrenees, but the southern regions of the country, with the warm Mediterranean sun calling (even in mid-October), we decided to exercise a bit of geographical equality and pointed the rental toward the Sierra Nevadas.

At first we were disappointed by the high rises and Home Depot development along the Mediterranean, compared to the relatively unspoiled vistas of the Basque coast. As we continued south toward Costa del Sol, we discovered the Mediterranean of our mind; first stop, Granada, a thriving city settled into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Looming above the city sits the world-renowned Moorish Alhambra, a fortress that dates back to the 9th century.

But with the massive, snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevadas visible from almost anywhere in Granada, it's just a matter of time before your outdoor impulses get the best of you. At 535 square miles, Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada is the biggest of Spain's 12 national parks, a remarkable high-altitude environment known for the intermixing of African and European alpine flora and fauna species while the Mediterranean was temporarily dry some 6 million years ago. The park is now home to 2,000 plant species, Andalucia's largest ibex population, and 11,420-foot Mount Mulhacén, the tallest mountain on the Iberian peninsula. Summer and spring activities are limited only by your time and imagination: hiking, cycling, mountaineering, rock climbing…

Soon snow-sport enthusiasts would flock to the Sierra Nevadas to ski down Europe's southernmost slopes. But our time, sadly, had run out. We took off back to Madrid, the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas disappearing in our rear view mirror.

A back road detour from the Córdoba-Madrid freeway (look for J6120 to Aldeaquemada between Bailén and Valdepeñas) to the spectacular La Cimbarra Falls on the quiet Guarriza River only confirmed what we already knew: while the hordes were trooping through the Prado or getting ripped off on flamenco shows in Sevilla, we'd discovered a different Spain altogether. Beautiful, remote, and difficult to access, but infinitely varied, rewarding, adventurous, and real.


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