Parque Natural Sierra de las Nieves
By Thursday we’d had all we could take of sightseeing, people and and driving the wrong way down one-way streets that were as wide as a goat path. It was imperative that we get some quiet time in the wilderness to maintain our sanity. I noticed a sign for Parque Natural Sierra de las Nieves on the drive back from Ronda a few days earlier, so we drove inland and upwards to the mountains in order see what lay beyond the picnic tables and parking lot at the entrance.
Unlike the rest of Southern Spain, there were marked hiking trails. We took a short one due to an impending rainstorm. The landscape was vaguely similar to southern California except for the cork trees.
This area has the largest population of Spanish Ibex in Spain but we didn’t see any. We did see goats – and pig poop – but they wouldn’t allow me close enough to get a good photo:
We wandered off the trail and found this stone wall. It could have been built by the Phoenicians or last week, I have no idea, but this orange lichen was really cool:
Here’s a far-off view of Gibraltar on the way back to the coast:
