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Malaga Mountains

The park is located a few kilometres north of Malaga city, in the river basin of the Río Guadalmedina, which flows to the west of the park. Tributaries of the Guadalmedina feed into it, running southwest, like the Arroyo de Don Ventura, the Cañada de Guijarrro and Arroyo de Humaina. In the northern part of the park are Arroyo de los Frailes, Arroyo de Chopares and Arroyo de las Vacas. It is a region of dense pine forest, which consists of 4,996ha. Its hills range from 80m to just over 1,000m above sea level.

The park is dominated by Aleppo pines, which were planted in the Río Guadalmedina river basin by Malaga city council in a concerted reforestation campaign, from 1930 until 1950, in an attempt to prevent the disastrous flash floods that had plagued Malaga for centuries.

Deforestation of the original Mediterranean woodland began in the 15th century when the Catholic Monarchs took possession of Malaga and divided up the land. The new owners cut down the native trees and replaced them mainly with olive trees and grapevines. Major deforestation signalled the beginning of a succession of catastrophic floods in Malaga, the first recorded one being in 1544, and these continued until the early 20th century. With the creation of the Agujero reservoir and the series of reforestation programmes in the 1930s, there was considerably less flooding.

Until the phylloxera epidemic ravaged the area in the late 19th-century, viticulture was the main economic activity and the legacy of this can be seen today, in the lagar houses dotting the Montes de Malaga. A lagar was a house with its principal section dedicated to wine production. You can visit a former lagar, now converted into a museum: the Ecomuseo Lagar de Torrijos. The park is rich in flora and fauna, with species of 400 plants, 90 birds, 27 ammals, 19 reptiles and eight amphibians being recorded here.

Fauna
This is one of the few places in Andalucia with a significant chamaleon population. Other reptiles include spine-footed lizards, ocellated lizards and geckos. Mammals here are wild boars, badgers, foxes, polecats, weasels, beech martens, rabbits, wild cats and squirrels. Raptors can be seen soaring above the hilly peaks, such as booted eagles, short-toed eagles, buzzards and goshawks, all of which breed here. During migration you can often see black kites, griffon vultures and black and white storks. There are also barn, tawny and eagle owls. Calandra larks, skylarks, crag martins, white wagtails, reed warblers, cuckoos, goldfinches, green woodpeckers, lapwings, partridges and quails are among the other bird species found in the park.

Flora
The main trees in the park are Aleppo pines (pinus halepensis). In the northern section of the park holm oaks (quercus ilex), cork oaks (quercus suber) and gall oaks (quercus faginea) - the tree species that were here originally - grow among the Aleppo pines. Carob trees (ceratonia siliqua), wild olive trees (olea europaea sylvestris) and cultivated areas of almond trees can also be seen. Under the more mature pine trees are areas of Mediterranean scrubland: lentisc (pistacia lentiscus), dwarf fan palms (chamaerops humilis), oleanders (nerium oleander), strawberry trees (arbutus unedo), myrtle (myrtus communis), rock roses (cistus ladanifer, c. albidus, c.monspeliensis), prickly junipers (juniperus oxycedrus) and aromatic plants like thyme (thymus vulgaris), rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis) and lavender (lavandula angustifolia) are among the vegetation making up the scrubland beneath the pine and oak trees.

Access
The main entrance is at Fuente de la Reina, off the A345. This road leaves the north east of Malaga city and climbs steeply up the mountain with some hairpin bends. It then follows the eastern border of the park. The other one is at Casabermeja, take the A355 east in the direction of Colmenar where you can take the A345 south along the eastern border of the park where there are a number of entrances