After the rainiest spring in ages, I had a couple of hours in a free morning – or actually, I just needed to do something for a little bit before I could become productive again. And the Internet helped supplying the information of this little route that could be done in under a couple of hours.

The route inches into the oak forest Bosque de Valdenazar, mainly composed of Portuguese oaks (Quercus faginea) and holly oak (Quercus ilex). The track was designed and is maintained by the municipality of Yebes. It delves into the forest and runs parallel to a small stream with bulrushes (Scirpus holoschoenus), rubuses and black poplars (Populus nigra). The area is home to roe deer, small raptors, and foxes, but none of them were around to be found – probably due to screaming kids. I did see some deer tracks.

It felt a bit silly to drive somewhere for a walk, but it was the only way to get there. Google maps was missing three roundabouts, but my Sat-Nav got me there without a hiccup – and considering that I’ve needed to MacGyver a stand for it because the wire keeps coming loose, I think that’s a feat. I parked at the entrance and set onto the hike.

The first stage was a small picnic area, after which came a bit of a steep slope with makeshift stairs. The route is mostly circular and I thought following the arrows was the way to go. At first I was alone, but then I started running into other walkers. The problem was that of course, they were chatting – and the families being a bit loud – and that made any possible fauna sighting impossible.

I had a look at what they call the carboneras, a bunch of oak trees that were repeatedly cut and slow-burnt to create carbon. That caused the living trees so they had strange-looking trunks, with several thick branches growing from the stumps. I found the viewpoint to look at the whole valley for a bit, before I walked into the actual forest. There is a wide track that feels a bit like the forest near The Shire in The Lord of The Rings, with the light sweeping through the leaves and the light breeze.

I reached the stream and deviated to a sub-track known as Senda de la Fuente (Fountain Trail), parallel to the water flow. I expected an actual fountain at some point, but there was just a small waterspout. After that, it was just a bit of an uphill walk to get to the picnic area again.

All in all, I was there for about an hour and a half. It was pretty but not the spectacular walk I had read about. I’ve read that it is incredible in autumn, so I might have to check it out again by then, but the truth is that the weather has been crazy in 2025, so I’m not sure we will even have an actual autumn… But all in all, the hike was nice and it cleared my head, which was exactly what I needed at that point.