Bailón River Trail – Sierras Subbéticas Natural Park

Before describing the circular route, we want to inform you that to do the Bailón River route, you must first obtain authorization from the Junta de Andalucía, Department of Sustainability, Environment, and Blue Economy. This document can be obtained digitally through the Trail Authorization Processor for quota-regulated trails.

As you can see, this is a route that passes through a unique area with access limitations, so let’s enjoy it and not disturb anything along the way.

We designed the route to be circular, and it is indeed beautiful, but I am sure and recommend that you do it in spring when you can fully enjoy the Bailón River, its waterfalls, and the polje. However, we did it in a dry June, and we still loved it.

We start from the village of Zuheros, one of the Most Beautiful Villages in Spain, in the province of Córdoba, in the Subbética Mountains.

We quickly climb to Portillo Alto, from where you can enjoy views of Zuheros and its whimsical geographical setting. We continue ascending until we reach the Mirador del Cañón del Charco Hondo.

Following the marked trail along the river, we pass by the Cave of the Friar, a rock shelter in a climbing area with 60 routes.

A little further ahead, we find the Fuente de La Mora, and upstream we reach the ruins of the Cortijo de la Fuenfría and then the spring of the same name.

We continue along the Vereda Marchaniega or Camino de la Nava, passing an informative sign explaining the Paleodolina, a circular hollow in the mountain formed by the dissolution of the rock in this area, which was underwater in the Middle Jurassic. Needless to say, collecting fossils is not allowed, right?

Following the trail, we enter the tail end of the La Nava polje. A polje is a depression in a karst rock massif, resembling a large, elongated, enclosed valley with a flat bottom, of considerable size and irregular contours. Honestly, it must be beautiful in spring.

We move forward through the polje and turn left along the Fuenseca stream to see the waterfall that forms the Chorreras when there is water.

We descend back to the wide valley area and cross the Fuenseca stream, then ascend along small, easy paths, passing by the Cortijo de la Ventilla until we find the Camino de la Atalayuela, which leads us to Collado Lanuste in the Sierra de Abrevia.

At the height of Cerro de la Chiva, we look for the Colada del Pozuelo to Luque through Zuheros and then descend along the PR-A 442 Sierra Abrevia trail, passing by the Fuente de Pozuelo.

And leaving the mountains behind and looking ahead at the olive plantations… Zuheros reappears before us!

A beautiful route that we finished with a good salmorejo in the Plaza del Castillo Palacio de Zuheros.