Just what the hiker and cyclist are looking for

The Sierras d Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas are protected under the figure of Natural Park. This means that, by travelling along the GR 247 Bosques del Sur path, the walker and the cyclist will find what they are looking for: tranquillity and landscapes full of life and well preserved, with hardly any aggressive elements that break their harmony, without any studs that tarnish their cleanliness.

This immense territory was one of the first to be declared a Natural Park in Andalusia. And it deserves it. It is the largest forest mass in Spain and its biodiversity has some dizzying figures. And if there are so many species of plants and animals, it is because their habitat is preserved in good condition: the water is clean, the forests are dense and the peaks are clear. The hiker will also find villages with castles and white alleys, and unusual mountain villages. Here, Nature is cared for as it should be everywhere.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

The biggest

With its almost 210,000 hectares, this Natural Park is the largest protected area in Spain and one of the largest in Europe. To get an idea of what this means, let's say it is an area similar to that of the province or historical territory of Biscay.

To this protected area we must add that of two other small adjacent Natural Parks: the Natural Park of Los Calares del Mundo and La Sima, located to the north, and the Natural Park of the Sierra de Castril, to the south, adding up to 31,000 hectares between them.

Therefore, here is a set of more than 240,000 hectares of continuous protected territory. An area that is equivalent to approximately half of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja.

This amplitude is experienced as a sensation of freedom. The freedom that one feels in the great virgin territories and the freedom that one has to choose between many options when visiting different areas, doing very varied routes and enjoying very diverse landscapes. This Par ...

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With all the medals

These mountains no longer have medals in recognition of their landscape, ecological and cultural value. In 1986 they were declared a Natural Park by the Andalusian Government, but even before that, in 1960, a large part of the southern half of the territory was declared a National Hunting Reserve due to the abundance of species such as the mountain goat, wild boar, deer, fallow deer and mouflon. This reserve is now called the Reserva Andaluza de Cazorla y Segura and covers 70,000 hectares.

UNESCO set its eyes on our mountains in 1983, declaring them a Biosphere Reserve. This means that the Park forms part of the select club of 553 enclaves in the world distributed in 107 countries that form the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, in which the United Nations trusts as an example of areas in which innovation and nature conservation is a motor for sustainable development.

The European Union also considers the sierras of Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas as one of the cont ...

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Twenty-six municipalities to welcome the walker and the cyclist

There are 25 municipalities in Jaén that are totally or partially included in the Natural Park, and one more has no territory in the Park but is fully integrated in its area of influence. Some towns are located on the periphery of the protected area, but others are located in the interior. The various municipalities are distributed over the three regions that give the Park its name. The northern zone, corresponding to the Sierra de Segura, is the most populated within the Park, with nine municipalities and dozens of tiny villages scattered. The most populated, such as Cazorla, Villanueva del Arzobispo and Villacarrillo, are on the periphery of the Park and have less than ten thousand inhabitants. Those of lesser population, located in the interior of the Park, hardly reach the 500 inhabitants, as is the case of Segura de la Sierra, Hornos de Segura or Benatae. Other towns have an intermediate size, around 2000 inhabitants (like Siles, Orcera, La Puerta de Segura, Huesa or Santo Tomé ...

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The public use facilities of the Natural Park

The Park has many facilities for public use that facilitate their knowledge and enjoyment. The GR 247 Bosques del Sur Trail passes through some of them or nearby. These facilities are of the following types:

Accommodation (campsites, controlled camping areas, mountain hotels, rural houses), recreational areas, nature classrooms, visitor centers and information points, Botanical Garden and Botanical Collections, viewpoints, marked trails, others (wildlife park, kiosk-bar, etc.)

For detailed information on these facilities, you can consult the Visitor's Window for Natural Areas on the website of the Andalusian Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment.

To know more about the Natural Park, we suggest visiting the web 

www.sierrasdecazorlaseguraylasvillas.es