Picos de Europa National Park

Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa spans approximately 67,455 hectares across parts of three Spanish autonomous communities — Asturias, Cantabria, and Castile and León — and was declared Spain's first national park in 1918. The park takes its name ('Peaks of Europe') from the legend that sailors returning from the Americas could see these mountains as the first European land after crossing the Atlantic. The massif is divided into three limestone mountain blocks — the Western, Central, and Eastern massifs — cut through by dramatic river gorges. The highest point, Torre de Cerredo, reaches 2,650 metres. The park's most celebrated hiking route is the Ruta del Cares, a 11.5-kilometre path carved into the walls of the Garganta del Cares — a 2,000-metre-deep limestone gorge that separates the western and central massifs. The path traverses bridges and tunnels blasted into the cliff face above the Cares River and is accessible to walkers of moderate fitness without technical equipment. The Fuente Dé cable car in Cantabria ascends 753 metres in approximately 4 minutes to the upper plateau of the Central Massif at 1,823 metres, from where hiking trails cross alpine meadows with views back to the Atlantic coast on clear days. The park shelters significant wildlife including the Cantabrian brown bear (around 300 remain in the broader Cantabrian mountain range) and the Cantabrian chamois. Traditional mountain villages such as Sotres and Bulnes — accessible only by footpath or cable car — preserve ancient rural architecture. The park is administered from Cangas de Onís, where the pre-Romanesque Covadonga Sanctuary and its mountain lakes (Lagos de Covadonga) sit at the park's western edge.