Spain's Sierra Nevada is the southernmost big mountain range in Europe, and the Puerto de la Ragua is the main paved road across it. At 2,041 metres it is not the highest road in the range, since the great summits of Mulhacén and Veleta both lie further west and rise to around 3,400 metres, but it is the easiest to love. It links Guadix, on the high dry plateau to the north, with the villages of the Alpujarras, the steep valleys on the southern side, and the change of scene from one side to the other is abrupt.
The northern approach climbs from the Marquesado del Zenete, a bare, rolling country of ochre earth and scattered pines, past the castle of La Calahorra, a Renaissance fortress with four round corner towers built in the early sixteenth century by a Mendoza nobleman who wanted a palace in the Italian style. You see it from far away, a square block set against the mountains. After that the road tilts upward in long, easy bends, the trees thin out and a few patches of snow may still lie in the hollows in spring. The surface is good, the gradient steady and the traffic light, with the occasional cyclist grinding up toward the top.
On the other side, the road drops into the Alpujarras toward Laroles and Mecina Bombarón, and the landscape turns green and wet with chestnut, poplar and terraced fields watered by Moorish irrigation channels, the acequias, that still carry snowmelt to the hillsides. The villages of whitewashed flat-roofed houses cling to the slopes, a style that passed from the Berbers of the Atlas, and the Moriscos who lived here rebelled against Philip II in the 1560s in a bitter war whose memory remains strong. The descent has plenty of tight bends and some rough patches, so take it with respect.
The nearest town of any size is Guadix, about twenty-three kilometres away, which has stations, supermarkets and a surprising district of cave houses carved into the hillsides, still lived in. In the Alpujarras, the villages have bars and small restaurants serving jamón from Trevélez, which is cured at altitude, along with migas and goat stew. The pass may close in winter after snow, so check conditions if you travel between late autumn and spring.
At the top, the air is thin and dry, and the view stretches over two different worlds. Take a layer, because the wind blows hard.