Castellón de los machos and Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
168 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 32
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
168 km from Boniches to Boniches, about 3 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón, Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas and back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Castellón de los machos
High in the Serranía de Cuenca, among pine woods and sandstone outcrops near the village of Villar del Humo, prehistoric hunters painted figures on the rock shelters thousands of years ago. The site called Castellón de los Machos is one of a cluster in this area that belongs to the vast UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula, which covers hundreds of painted shelters from Catalonia to Andalusia. The images here are small, reddish and stylised, and finding them takes patience and good eyes.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Castellón de los machos is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón.
2. Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón
Paridera is a shepherd's word: a stone pen where ewes give birth, sheltered from the wind. Above Tormón, a tiny village in the southern Sierra de Albarracín, one such overhang has given its name to a rock shelter with prehistoric paintings, the Abrigo de la Paridera, part of the Levantine rock art sites the Iberian Peninsula shares under one UNESCO listing. The cliff here is rodeno, the red sandstone that gives this corner of Teruel its startling colour, eroded into towers, arches and overhangs among the pine trees.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas.
3. Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas
Albarracín is one of the loveliest villages in Spain, a town of pink-ochre houses on a rock bend above the Guadalaviar river, with medieval walls climbing the hill behind. The Sierra de Albarracín around it is high and cold, at about 1,200 metres, a land of pine forest, red sandstone outcrops called rodeno, and wide empty plateaus. The Guadalaviar, which becomes the Turia in Valencia, rises in these hills, and the Tagus and the Júcar are not far from their sources. The rock shelters of this region, including the Huerto de las Tajadas, hold some of the oldest paintings of the Levantine and Schematic styles, and they are part of the Mediterranean-arc group UNESCO listed in 1998.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Castellón de los machos. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Castellón de los machos to Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón
Castellón de los machos → Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón to Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas
Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón → Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas to back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón
Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas → back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón to Castellón de los machos
back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón → Castellón de los machos is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.