La Saltadora is a ravine and a rock shelter in the dry hill country of the Alt Maestrat, in the north of Castellón province, about six kilometres from Albocàsser. The name means the jumper, the leaper, and the shelter is one of dozens that carry paintings in the Levantine style: small red figures of people and animals, often archers and hunters, painted on the limestone walls by people who lived here long before the Romans. Together with other sites across Spain's eastern side, these paintings are protected as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, a UNESCO listing from 1998.
The setting does most of the work. This is a country of ravines cut into pale limestone, with dry-stone terraces holding almonds and olives, scrubby holm oak, rosemary and thyme, and the smell of resin in the sun. Albocàsser, a village of about fourteen hundred people, is the closest place, with Les Coves de Vinromà and Catí not much farther. Catí is known for its goat's cheese, and the Maestrat as a whole was once the domain of the Templars and later the Order of Montesa, which explains the number of fortified hilltops.
The roads leading in are narrow, twisting and sometimes rough. Corners come tight and often blind, and surfaces are patched, with gravel at the edges. Traffic is almost nothing, which is a blessing, but the cattle and tractors around Albocàsser appear without warning. The best time is spring, when almond blossom fades into green, or autumn; summers are hot and dry.
Do not count on fuel in the small villages. Fill the tank before leaving the coast, in Alcalà de Xivert or a bigger place, and carry water. The last stretch to the shelter is usually on foot, so wear boots you can walk in.