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.
A 380 km round trip from Bárcabo - roughly 6 h 43 in the saddle. On the way it passes Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña, Chaves I, Forau del Cocho and back through Chaves I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mascún III
The Sierra de Guara is among the great limestone landscapes of Spain, and the Mascún gorge, cut deep into its southern flank, is one of the best known. The river has worn a long, narrow canyon, with walls hundreds of metres high, and at its head stands the little village of Rodellar, which has become a pilgrimage place for climbers from across Europe. Mascún III lies about fifteen kilometres from Alquézar and farther still from any big town, and it is one of a series of painted shelters in the canyon. They carry figures in the Levantine tradition, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain. Another ride connects it to the beech woods of the Hayedos de Navarra, which tells you how far these routes travel.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mascún III is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chaves I.
3. Chaves I
The Cueva de Chaves, in the foothills of the Sierra de Guara in Huesca, was one of the most important Neolithic sites in the Iberian Peninsula, with deposits showing some of the earliest farming and herding in north-eastern Spain. In 2007, in an act that caused outrage, the landowner bulldozed the cave's floor deposits, destroying much of the archaeological record, and the case went to court. Rock art shelters in the area, including Chaves I and others in the Vero river valley, survive and are part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin listing, with paintings ranging from Palaeolithic to schematic art.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Chaves I. Next is Forau del Cocho.
4. Forau del Cocho
South of Huesca the land opens out. The Pyrenees are behind you, a snowy line on a clear day, and ahead stretches the gently rolling cereal country that eventually turns into the dry steppes of Los Monegros. Forau del Cocho lies in this transitional landscape, between Torres de Barbués, Almuniente and the outskirts of Huesca itself, a place where the only relief is the occasional low ridge or gully cut into soft rock.