INTO THE DEEPEST SOUTH OF SPAIN

INTO THE MOST EXTENSIVE PROTECTED AREA (NATURAL PARK) IN SPAIN

The village of Los Prados is located west of the municipality of Yeste, in a quite wild and well preserved from the natural point of view, adjacent to the Natural Park of the Calares del Rio Mundo and La Sima, which in turn It is bordering the Natural Park of Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas, which also borders the Castril Natural Park, constituting among the three, with almost 250,000 protected hectares, the most extensive protected contiguous zone in Spain and the second in Europe, after the Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland. 

In the following map the location of the village has been highlighted to enable its easy location.

HOW TO GET TO THE LOT

Access by vehicle is made from the town of Yeste, and up to here it is usually reached from Elche de la Sierra and Hellín, the latter city located in the layout of the A30 motorway. They are good kilometers on roads that, although they have modern tracings and are in good condition, present some fairly winding sections, such as the one that goes from Elche de la Sierra to Yeste, or the small mountain road that, from Yeste, brings us closer to Los Prados passing through the village of Arguellite. It is the price that must be paid to access an environment with such special characteristics. The driving time, at legal speed, from Hellín to Los Prados is approximately 1 h 30 minutes.

Main roads of the province of Albacete (connection with Yeste)

In the following photo of Google Maps ® you can see the location of the plot. The map is interactive and can be expanded to see where the terrain is located in relation to the area, the province, Spain, or the whole world.



And below is a snapshot of the raster map of the geographic service of the Spanish National Geographic Institute, in the area of ​​Los Prados and Arguellite:

Map of the area (obtained from Map 1: 25000 of the Spanish National Geographic Institute ®)

HERE IT LIGHTS THE SUN ALMOST ALL YEAR, BUT ALSO RAINS AND SNOWS

The southern area of ​​Albacete is located southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, an area characterized by the presence of not very abundant rainfall and a large number of hours of sunshine per year. However, despite this abundance of solar radiation, the mountain environment of Los Prados and Tus records much more abundant rainfall than other nearby areas, which translates into a much more developed and dense vegetation, and in the presence of rivers , streams and fountains that remain with abundant water all year round.

Pluviometría de la provincia de Albacete.

CORNERS TO ENJOY

Within the Natural Park of the Calares del Mundo and the Sima there are places as beautiful as the birth of the Mundo River, popularly known as "Los Chorros".

The impressive waterfall of the birth of the Mundo River.

My friends and I fording the Arroyo de la Espinea, a small tributary on the left orographic margin of the high course of the Segura River.

Fording the stream of La Espinea

It is an extraordinary environment to enjoy nature sports, such as mountain biking, hiking, rafting, mountaineering (even winter), caving, climbing, canyoning, wildlife observation, etc.

Ascending the extraordinary canyon of the river Tus

 

El Saltador waterfall, in the Tejuelo stream, one of the channels that join to form the Tus river.

In this area there are also many abandoned villages, still standing, silent witnesses of the depopulation of a different world, the hard survival economy in the mountains, which only a few decades ago was still the way of life of many people in deep Spain.

Abandoned village of Tinadas Nuevas, next to Arguellite.

If you want more information about the natural and anthropological values ​​of the area, you can visit the following link about the Natural Park of the Calares del Mundo and the Sima.