Top 8 Natural Monuments around Villafranca Montes De Oca

Nice area for hiking and mountain biking trails in La Demanda

The path enters the beech forest, goes down to the Altuzarra stream and the natural wonders begin. The trail is marked with green and white paint marks on the trunks of the trees, but they are placed to take the route in the opposite direction, they appear after passing the tree that has the sign. On the bank of the torrent there is a path that crosses the riverbed towards the Mirador de Domingo Sevilla, which is the shortcut that we indicated on the way up to San Millán along the Urbión River. The waterfall path goes down the bank of the stream and immediately reaches the upper edge of the first waterfall, known as Salto Alto or Cascada Grande. The balcony is beautiful because of the energy of the waterfall as it falls and the surrounding beech forest. The path goes down some stone ledges to the left of the waterfall. Below the views are impressive, the water jumps over the walls of rocks and mosses creating a beautiful river scene in a suggestive forest environment. The path continues along the bank of the stream and goes down to the base of Salto Medio, another jewel of the Altuzarra stream, and shortly after it passes through Salto Chico, which closes the magnificent trio of waterfalls. The natural steps of the ravine where the waterfalls are formed are quite steep and it is easy to slip on the leaf litter, the floating roots of the beech trees and the sludge caused by humidity, adding intimacy and mystery to the spell of the forest. The path passes through a couple of narrow bends in the stream that require you to jump over the channel several times and exits on the left of the ravine towards a repopulated pine forest.

The Zarcia Recreational Zone is 2.8 kilometers from Santa Cruz del Valle Urbión along a dirt track suitable for cars, there are some potholes but with care they do not present problems. At the entrance to the picnic areas there is room for three or four cars and 150 meters before arriving there is space for many more. The route begins along the main path of the Urbión River valley, passes through a detour and after one kilometer the Altuzarra waterfalls path appears on the right, which is the return route. The path does not present orientation complications, it follows the course of the water to the head of the valley. In several sections you have to cross the riverbed or walk along the small islands that the torrent forms when there is a lot of flow, always among beech trees, holly trees, yew trees and the riverside scrub that seeks the humidity and wild environment of the glacial valley. Some reference points are the Refugio de Laguarra cabin and shortly after the crossroads where the Mirador de Domingo Sevilla trail leaves on the right, which is also a shortcut to get directly to the Altuzarra waterfalls without passing through the summit of the mountain. . On the opposite bank of the ravine is the “most famous beech tree in Burgos”, as indicated by a sign stuck on a stone near the monumental tree.

Several crossroads, several mailboxes, crossroads of tracks... and more than 1400 meters high.

Interesting summit with good views. The height of the monolith that symbolizes the top is curious.

Interesting place, confluence of several tracks. It also has several crosses and mailboxes, and is just over 1,400 meters long.

Good views and nice fall colors

On the N-120 between Villafranca Montes de Oca and Burgos there is a fork on the right that leads (heading north-west on the BU-V-7012 road) to Atapuerca. In this municipality there is an archaeological site of primary importance, containing a large quantity of hominid bones dating back to over 400,000 years ago. For this reason the site has been included among the World Heritage sites. The archaeological park can be visited from Monday to Friday (from 9 to 17), Saturdays and public holidays (from 9 to 14)