Beech trees at the southern edge of their range look different from the northern kind, and anyone who has stood in the Hayedo de Montejo in October will tell you why. This is a small forest on the northern slopes of the Sierra del Rincón, in the far north of the Madrid region, above the village of Montejo de la Sierra, and it is the southernmost beech wood in Europe of its type. It survives in a cool, damp pocket left over from the last Ice Age, and in 2017 it was added to the UNESCO list of ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe.
The forest itself is protected, and walking in it needs advance booking and a guide or a permit, with limited numbers allowed each day. That is worth knowing before you ride up, because turning up on a whim in autumn, when everyone wants to see the leaves, will probably end in disappointment. Check the official arrangements first.
The ride makes up for any red tape. The roads that climb from the A-1 corridor into the Sierra del Rincón are narrow, quiet and rural, with stone villages, hay meadows and views toward the Guadarrama range to the south. Corners are friendly, the road surface is mostly good, and there are long stretches where you meet only a tractor. In autumn the hillsides turn gold and copper, in winter there may be snow or ice at this altitude, and in spring the meadows fill with flowers. Summer is warm in the day and cool at night, a relief from Madrid.
The region was once sheep country, part of the network of cañadas along which flocks walked between summer and winter pastures, and there are still shepherds' huts and stone enclosures if you look. Wildlife includes roe deer, wild boar and a good many birds of prey.
Montejo and the nearby villages are small, and fuel is not guaranteed, so fill up along the A-1 or in larger towns on the way. Bars serve hearty food, and a plate of roast lamb or a stew of beans is just the thing after a cool day in the hills.