Ruta SPG-24 | JBinnacle – A Travel Logbook

A friend phoned me for a day out, and I gladly agreed. Their idea was to check out the small forest Bosque de Valdenazar, in Yebes. We were hopeful for some nice autumn colours, but as it turned out, we were a tad bit too early for them.

We both had done the route before, myself back in May. The forest is supposed to be astonishing in fall, with plenty of gold and red leaves. Unfortunately, weather in 2025 has been crazy, with summer-like temperatures right up to late October, so most trees were still green, and they would probably just lose their leaves before they could turn gold. I am not a fan of autumn weather, but the colours are pretty – I ended up taking another go later, even.

The route Ruta SPG-24 has recently gained traction as a pretty spot since the town hall fitted it around the neighbourhood called Ciudad Valdeluz. The population of the area has been steadily growing lately due to lower housing prices and an increase of services offered. But maybe, the biggest impulse that the Route had might have been that the local park has been quarantined due to an avian flu outbreak – everything was cordoned off.

During the walk, which takes less than an hour, we spotted some red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris). These rodents live on trees and enjoy nuts. In Spain, it is said that they love acorns – or at least, hoard them in autumn so they can feed through the winter. As a good part of the forest is composed of oaks, these two have a good chance to survive. We thought they might be a couple, but it turns out that squirrels just mate sporadically when they’re in season, so they were just neighbours, as red squirrels are not territorial.

A view of an oak forest. Most of the trees are greyish green, but osme of them have started turning a bit yellow with autumn.

A path in an oak forest. The trees seem to arch over it. Some have started losing their leaves, which has carpeted the path with them. The trees have started showing yellow, brown and reddish colours, but the leaves on the ground are all brown-grey.

A red squirrel looks at the camera from a tree trunk.

A red squirrel peeks at the camera from behind a tree trunk, only its upper body is visible, but it seems to be smiling.

A red squirrel gathering acorns from a leaf-covered ground.

A path in an oak forest. The trees seem to arch over it. Some have started losing their leaves, which has carpeted the path with them.

We did not let the lack of autumn disappoint us, and grabbed the car to go back to town and enjoy some pancakes in a local café.

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.

Valdenazar forest pathway

Valdenazar forest, start of the route

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.

Valdenazar forest trail

Valdenazar forest

Valdenazar forest trail

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.

Valdenazar forest trail

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.