Los Vélez is a district of its own, a high, dry corner of northern Almería where the province meets Murcia and Granada, and the title of its old masters, the Marquises of Los Vélez, still hangs over it. Las Covachas is a rock shelter about four kilometres from Vélez-Blanco and a bit more from Vélez Rubio, and it belongs to a rich local group of painted sites that includes the famous Cueva de los Letreros. The paintings are in the Levantine style, protected as part of the UNESCO rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain. Other shelters have stronger images, so treat this as part of a pattern, not a highlight.
Vélez Rubio, a few kilometres away, is the bigger of the two towns, with about seven thousand people and a vast baroque church, the Iglesia de la Encarnación, which seems wildly out of scale for the place, a reminder of the wealth that once flowed here from wool, wheat and the marquises' estates. Vélez-Blanco has its castle, a Renaissance fortress on a hill, with a courtyard that is now in a New York museum.
The Sierra de María-Los Vélez natural park fills the skyline, a limestone range reaching more than two thousand metres at Maimón, with pine forest, almond groves and wide pale uplands. In late winter, the almond trees bloom pink and white, and the lower slopes can look as if they have been dusted with snow. Birds of prey are common, and in the evening, the light turns the limestone gold.
The roads here are delightful. They run through the valley in long, easy bends, then climb into the sierra with tight turns and big views, with almost no traffic. Surfaces are generally good, though dusty near farms, and the wind can pick up on exposed crests. Fuel is easy in Vélez Rubio, which has several stations, and María, with about fifteen hundred people, has the basics. Eat in Vélez-Blanco, where the bars serve decent local food. In summer, ride early or late, as midday brings real heat.