La Sauceda is a village situated in the municipality of Cortes de la Frontera in the province of Malaga, in the Natural Park of Los Arconocales. A popular area for rural tourism and from where we can plan our routes either trekking or biking.
La Sauceda is situated 57 kilometres away from Algeciras and 129 kilometres away from Malaga, which is why we’ll need a vehicle of our own to get there. If you wish, you can check out our car hire prices at Malaga airport. It has stone and wooden houses that can be rented for excursionists and their sleeping bags.
In La Sauceda, from the Aljibe peak one can connect with the paths of the province of Cadiz.
Los Alcornocales is one of the biggest natural parks in Spain, with great forest areas and a Mediterranean autochthonous forest that offers a wide variety of landscapes and fauna. Most of this park belongs to Cadiz although it has a small part that enters inside the province of Malaga.
The climate of the park is Mediterranean and mild due to its proximity to the sea and the special microclimate of the area with similitudes to the subtropical climate that favours the growth of exuberant vegetation. The predominant vegetation of the park is the cork tree (Alcornoque) as its name indicates.
Amongst the park’s fauna we’ll find otters, deer, roe deer, weasels, wildcats and a wide variety of birds that are on their way towards the Stretch of Gibraltar.
The park of Los Alcornocales has had human presence since prehistoric times, it has cave paintings in some of its caves like in the Cueva del Tajo de las Figuras, the Cueva de la Laja Alta, where we’ll see some of the first boats that crossed the Mediterranean, or the Cueva del Bacinete.
The majority of the villages we’ll find inside the park have their origins in ancient times and they show us the presence of Romans, Arabs, Iberians and Phoenicians in the area.
Amongst the routes of the park we can highlight the following:
-Route of the Mills
-River Hozgarganta route
-Gorge of the Dark Port route
-River Miguel route
-La Sauceda Cycle
-Tourism track
-Ascent path to El Picacho, the second highest peak of the park that has a flat area at the top.
-Ascent path to El Aljibe, the highest peak with 1092 metres of height above sea level.
With this route from the village we’ll have to go down towards the chapel and cross the river. Once we have crossed the river we’ll follow the path without turning off leaving some houses behind to then turn off to the right, a direction that we must maintain all the way until we reach a fence that we must cross and that will lead us to the the Peñon del Buitre, from where we’ll be able to enjoy beautiful views and curious rock formations.
The route from La Sauceda to the Peñon has medium difficulty and doesn’t have a long distance to cover, in 2 hours at a good pace we can make it. There is an absence of trails in some parts for which you’ll have to orientate yourselves well, the Peñon is surrounded by forests.
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