Oak grove

The aim of this itinerary is to see one of the Nature Reserve’s most spectacular oak groves, where huge oak trees grow, and a fairy-tale forest. Park your car and continue on foot, following the track for around 6 km. It is an easy climb.

 

Turn right when you come to a crossroads. A little further on, you can make out a fountain under an oak tree. From there, you will notice huge oak trees on your right, just above the fountain, although actually you will already have been walking through a remarkable oak grove for some time. An old forestry house known as La Fuente del Roble once stood at the crossroads. This is where the oak grove is unforgettable.

Oak is the predominant tree in this forest, but there are also gall oaks (Quercus faginea), whitebeams (Sorbus domestica), wild service trees (Sorbus torminlis), hawthorns (Crataegus monogyna), rosehips (Rosa spp.), laurel-leaved daphni (Daphne laureola), barberries (Berberis vulgaris australis), flax-leaved daphni (Daphne gnidium), wild peonies or mountain roses (Paeonia broteroi), orchids (Orchis papilionacea, Cephalantera rubra, Cephalantera longifolia, Ophrys tentrhediniphera), butcher’s broom (Ruscus aculeatus) and the grass that typically predominates in oak groves: Brachypodium retusum.

There are many oak groves in our mountains, as you can see when you go up to Santiago de la Espada from Tobos; in La Esperilla, just before the Fuente de Acero, and on the track that leads to Las Pegueras. Oak groves have been construed to mean a Mediterranean forest but it is not as simple as that.

To be more precise, oak groves are a phase of Mediterranean forests. Laurel forests, which are mentioned in a different section, are also Mediterranean forests. In any case, oak groves exist as such, and their predominant tree, holm oaks (Quercus ilex ballota) are found in practically every plant formation in the Nature Reserve, except on the summits and in the cold alpine deciduous forests.

 

LOCATION

From Coto Ríos, take the A-319 road that goes to El Tranco and after driving less than one kilometre, go right onto the road that leads to Los Llanos de Arance campsite. Go past it and carry on straight ahead (the road turns into a forest track) until you come to the Aguamula barrier. Pass it and turn left, leaving another track on your right. From here on, you follow the right bank of the Tranco reservoir. Take the first turn you come to on your right, around 2.1 km from the barrier. This is a very large crossroads where the track broadens. You must turn to the right, taking a very sharp bend that is almost a 180º turn back onto your former direction. This track goes uphill to Majalalto, passing by Fuente del Roble. Park your car in Majalalto, where a chain closes the track to vehicles.