The Sierra de Guara is the first big step of the Pyrenean foothills, a tumbled mass of limestone that has been cut into canyons so deep and narrow that people come from all over Europe to descend them with ropes. Muriecho is a tiny place on the southern fringe of the range, in the Somontano, the land at the foot of the mountain, and E1 is one numbered shelter of several recorded around it. The paintings belong to the Mediterranean-arc rock art that UNESCO listed in 1998, and this region of Huesca has some of the best examples in Aragon.
Alquézar, five kilometres away, is the place to head for. It is a village of under four hundred people on a rock above the Vero river, crowned by a collegiate church that began as a fortress, and its streets of pale stone tilt down to a gorge where metal walkways hang above the green water. Park below, since the village is steep and cobbled. In the evening, when the day trippers leave, the place is unbelievably quiet, and swifts scream around the walls.
The riding is first class. From Barbastro the road to Alquézar and further to the canyons weaves through olive groves and almond terraces, with bends of every radius and a dramatic view of the Guara ridge. Surfaces are generally good, and traffic is light except on summer weekends, when canyoners and climbers fill the lay-bys. In spring, the almond blossom is a fine sight, and in autumn the oak and box turn rusty. Summer afternoons are very hot, so start early.
Fuel comes from Barbastro, twenty kilometres away, a cheerful market town of seventeen thousand with a cathedral and the headquarters of the Somontano wine region. The villages themselves are too small to rely on. In the high cliffs above, griffon vultures circle all day, and the bearded vulture, the lammergeier, nests in the area, so keep an eye on the sky. For lunch, ask for a plate of local ternasco, the young Aragonese lamb, or a bowl of migas, and try a glass of Somontano red or the dry white from the cooler slopes.