The far north of Almería province is not the desert most people imagine. Around Vélez-Blanco and María the land rises into the Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park, a range of limestone peaks with pine and holm oak forest, high plains of cereal and almond and villages that can see snow in winter. Los Paradores is one of the rock art sites in this area, part of the UNESCO listing of the Mediterranean Iberian rock art, and the region holds one of the most famous painted shelters in Spain, the Cueva de los Letreros, home of the Indalo, a stick figure holding an arc over its head that has become the symbol of Almería.
Vélez-Blanco is a white village below a dramatic Renaissance castle built by the first Marquis of Los Vélez in the early sixteenth century. Its marble patio was sold in the early twentieth century and now stands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, so the castle is grand outside and largely empty within. The views from its walls across the valley and toward the sierra are superb.
The roads here are among the quietest in Andalusia. The A-317 from Vélez-Blanco through María toward the north crosses a high, lonely plateau and offers fast, flowing curves with very little traffic. Smaller roads into the sierra are tighter and steeper, with superb views, and some climb through forest to over a thousand metres. Surfaces are generally good but expect patches of gravel and occasional potholes. The A-92N motorway passes Vélez-Rubio for quick links to Granada and Murcia.
This is a land of extremes: hot dry summers, cold winters and big skies. Birds of prey, ibex in the mountains and wild boar in the forest are part of the scene. Fuel and food are best found in Vélez-Rubio, a town of seven thousand with a baroque church that seems far too big for it, and Vélez-Blanco has bars and small restaurants. Local dishes include migas, gurullos, a pasta stew, and cured meats from the mountain villages.