We are visiting the Picos de Europa, an area of Spain of which I until recently not even heard of. I had been missing out. As many other parts of Northern Spain, the Picos don't fail to deliver. The Picos are with their 646 square kilometres in comparison a tiny national park, but nature and scenery are amazing. It is so picturesque it is hard to find words.
The Picos offer many different options for hiking and other outdoor activities. We decided to stay in Las Arenas de Cabrales and make it the base for our excursions. One of the most famous hikes in this area is the Cares Trail. This trail was built between 1916 and 1921 as maintenance path for food and supplies to the hydroelectric power plant in Poncebos and apart of fantastic nature offers insight into some ingenious engineering.
The trail goes from Poncebos to Cain and is with its 18 kilometres way too long for us to do as a family. Also, the path is partly very narrow with vertical drops - nothing for a four- and six-year-old. For this reason, Anna and I decided to have each a day on our own to do the hike. I am up first and decide to take Ronja for company. Dogs are allowed on the trail and apart of the first climb up from Poncebos (around 2km) the trail runs flat to Cains and Ronja seemed to have no problems. It was a long hike and both Ronja and I are tired after 6 hours of walking, but it was refreshing for the mind.
Ronja tired and exhausted after the days hike. What a day we had.