Walking the most famous hiking route in Spain - Cares Route (PR-PNPE 3) - (Part 1) ⛰️🇪🇦

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For those of you who have followed my blog during the last weeks, you will know that I was on vacation in the north of Spain (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), enjoying its cooler climate, its good food and its forests and mountains.

And of course, as a lover of Nature and hiking, I couldn't ignore the fact of having the most famous hiking route in Spain just a few kilometers by car from the inn where I was staying.

40 kilometers from the inn to the start of the route (1 hour by car).

Appreciating the valley on my way to the route.

YouTube Short of the valley:

Glimpsing the Picos de Europa from the car, Cantabrian mountain range.

The Cares route is located in Picos de Europa National Park (it extends to three provinces and being not only a national natural park but also the largest limestone formation in Atlantic Europe with important karstic processes, chasms over 1,000 meters and very evident glacial erosion), being a linear route, with a maximum length of 24 kilometers, a medium difficulty (in some sections medium-high) and an approximate duration of 7 hours (depending on your physical condition).

The route starts from Caín de Valdeón, a beautiful hamlet (58 inhabitants) that reminds of the Alpine towns and there are some souvenir shops, small markets and couple of restaurants and hostels.

In principle, the route is for all audiences, but they also recommend that children be over 12 years old or that they always go hand in hand with their parents, not bring dogs, and go well equipped.

Start of the route in Caín de Valdeón hamlet.

YouTube Short of the first bridge of the route:

Cares river and the gorge (1).

Cares river and the gorge (2).

YouTube Short running through the tunnel carved into the rock.

My personal opinion regarding the recommendation for all audiences is that this route is much more dangerous than it may seem and, of course, it's not recommended for people with vertigo or people somewhat not accustomed to the mountains.

Falls have happened in the past, as does the encounter with wild animals, so common sense it's a must.

Heights (1).

Heights (2).

YouTube Short appreciating the heights and running towards the next bridge:

As you can see in the images and in the YouTube Shorts, there are no guardrails.

Chamois resting (1).

Chamois resting (2).

Although the chamois may seem harmless, it's better not to approach them too much in order to avoid bumps that can cause worse accidents, nor to feed them.

YouTube Short appreciating the heights from another point:

In my case, I was equipped with Salomon XT Wings 3 mountain shoes, mountain pants, fleece lining, a backpack with 2 liters of water, cereal bars, a raincoat, a wool cap, gloves and a towel.

It seemed like a storm was coming, so I decided to turn back and head to the starting point since you should never mess with the mountain (anyways, I was almost close to the end of the route but I didn't want to put myself in risk, even being well prepared) (1).

It seemed like a storm was coming, so I decided to turn back and head to the starting point since you should never mess with the mountain (anyways, I was almost close to the end of the route but I didn't want to put myself in risk, even being well prepared) (2).

I will tell you more about this route and my experience in the next episode!

Photographs taken with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.

YouTube shorts recorded with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera

Sources on which I relied to give some accurate info about Picos de Europa National park and Cares hiking route: (1), (2)