Home › Long-distance routes › Río Lobos Canyon › Full day · 14 km loop
One dayOn footPablo Cabezos from Mostoles, España — CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)Ucero
The full day, and the option for anyone who wants to see the canyon without the crowds. Fourteen circular kilometres from the Ucero Park House along the well-waymarked Senda de las Gullurías, which follows the canyon from above and gives a high perspective the riverbed walk cannot offer. The return drops to the river and passes the hermitage of San Bartolomé and the Cueva Grande, so nothing essential is missed. Only 240 metres of climb: the difficulty is the distance. Notes: the Balconcillo, the viewpoint reached from the hermitage by a path of some 200 metres, is not signposted and the climb calls for care. The Cueva Grande can be visited freely, but the Galiana cave requires going with an authorised operator. The hermitage interior opens for a one-euro ticket paid in cash to the attendant. In summer the riverbed stretch to the hermitage gets crowded: start early or take this path. Check conditions and access on the Natural Park website before setting out.
A loop from the Ucero Park House along the Senda de las Gullurías, with high views over the canyon, returning along the riverbed past the hermitage.
StartPedro J Pacheco — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)History / Templar fortress
On the edge of the village, the remains of a castle of Templar tradition command the entrance to the canyon. Beside it runs the old Roman canal, another layer of history in the same kilometre.
It sits behind you as you set off: turn round before you head into the canyon.
Nature / Viewpoint
A well-marked path that follows the canyon from above, giving a high perspective the riverbed walk cannot offer. And it has a practical advantage: it avoids the traditional stretch, always crowded and at times impassable.
This is the reason to choose this variant. Nearby is also the Ojo del Diablo, a curious hollow in the rock.
History / Rural heritage
Traces of how this land was once worked: an apiary with classic hives made from hollowed trunks and, scattered along the way, old lime kilns where limestone was fired to make lime.
These are marks of labour, not monuments: look for the hollow trunks and the circular kilns half swallowed by vegetation.
Triedros — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)Nature / Cave
A cave over a hundred metres deep that opens right behind the hermitage. Tradition points to it as the ancestral site that gave meaning to everything else, with rites predating the Romanesque, though this is not documented.
Step a few metres in and turn around: the classic photo is the hermitage framed by the cave mouth.
Wamba Wambez — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)Religion / Templar Romanesque
The most photographed spot in the canyon: a 13th-century Romanesque hermitage attributed to the Templars, standing on a green clearing right at the mouth of the Cueva Grande. A much-repeated tradition traces the river's name to the Celtic god Lug, linked to the wolf, though it is not documented. The site is said to have hosted pagan worship before the hermitage, though there is no archaeological evidence.
The interior is visited with a one-euro ticket paid in cash to the attendant. It is worth going in: the Romanesque iconography is among the most singular in Castile.
Nature / Viewpoint
The most spectacular viewpoint in the canyon, reached by a path of barely two hundred metres leaving from beside the hermitage. From up there you take in the whole meander and the limestone walls at once.
It is not signposted and the climb is steep: wear proper footwear and take care, especially with children. It pays off.
Nature / Wildlife
They are the park's most abundant species and wheel above the canyon along the whole route. With luck you may also see golden and short-toed eagles, falcons and kites, and on the ground roe deer, squirrels and hares.
Look up now and then: the canyon walls are their breeding site and they usually glide at rim height.
Every stage is in the app, with its map and elevation profile, the points of interest with their tip, and the option to save them for when there is no signal.
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