Near the high plateau of the Sierra de Albarracín, a few kilometres from the red-walled town of Albarracín itself, there is a patch of pine woodland on a very particular rock. It is called rodeno, a russet sandstone that glows orange when the sun is low and has been carved by wind and water into tall fins, mushrooms and overhangs. The Abrigo de los Toros del Prado del Navazo is one of the painted shelters in these Pinares de Rodeno, and its bulls, cattle depicted in red, are part of the same body of Levantine and schematic art that UNESCO listed in 1998.
Albarracín deserves a long look before or after. The town is a medieval walled settlement strung along a loop of the Guadalaviar, the river that further downstream becomes the Turia and reaches the sea at Valencia. Its houses have rose-coloured plaster, wooden balconies and uneven roofs, and the old walls climb a ridge behind it. For several decades in the Middle Ages it was an independent lordship under the Azagra family, a little state tucked between Aragon and Castile. Today it is protected, quiet in the early morning and crowded by noon at weekends.
The riding is higher and cooler than most of Spain, with Albarracín at about 1,200 metres. Winters are cold and snow is possible from November to March. Summer is the best time, with clear skies and a thin, dry air, and the road from Teruel is a good, mostly fast route that climbs through wide pine-covered hills and farmland. Closer to town the road narrows and gets bendier, and the bends near the rodeno forest are among the nicest you will find in the area.
Albarracín has about a thousand people, so it is small. Fuel is easiest in Teruel, twenty-six kilometres away, which is also where to find the Mudéjar towers and the cured ham that Teruel is known for. In the town you can eat roast lamb or migas, a humble dish of fried breadcrumbs, and wash it down with a cold beer. If you want to walk to the shelters, a path through the forest is marked, but sun and cliffs can be harsh, so bring a hat and a bottle of water.