Covacho de Palluala and Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
234 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 27
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.
234 km from Alquézar to Alquézar, about 4 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Mascún V, Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña and back through Mascún V. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Covacho de Palluala
Covacho is the Aragonese word for a small cave or overhang, and Palluala is one of the hillside patches near Alquézar that carry the old farming names of the valley. The shelter, a mere kilometre and a bit from the village, is probably the nearest to it of all the painted rocks on this list, which means you can leave the motorbike in the village and walk instead of making a project of it. As with its neighbours it belongs to the Levantine rock art of the Spanish Mediterranean, listed by UNESCO in 1998.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Covacho de Palluala is where the day begins. Next is Mascún V.
2. Mascún V
The Barranco de Mascún is one of the great canyons of the Sierra de Guara, a limestone range in the pre-Pyrenees of Huesca, where rivers have carved deep, narrow gorges, caves and towers into the rock. The canyon, near the village of Rodellar, is famous among climbers for its overhanging walls and among canyoners for its pools and waterfalls, and it also holds traces of prehistoric painting in its shelters. Mascún V is one of these sites, part of the group of Mediterranean rock art sites listed by UNESCO, and the setting, with sheer orange and grey walls rising above the river, is extraordinary.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mascún V comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña.
3. Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña
Just north of Huesca, where the flat cereal land of the Hoya suddenly rears up into the first limestone walls of the Pre-Pyrenees, lies the little village of Nueno and, above it, the rock shelter named after Santa Eulalia de la Peña. This is the southern edge of the Sierra de Guara country, a landscape of gorges, conglomerate cliffs and scrub where griffon vultures ride the thermals and the light comes hard off pale stone.