Trail 13: Roads leading up to San Juan de la Peña

Trail S-4 Pradera – San Salvador

The trail begins in the meadow of Mº Nuevo de San Juan de la Peña, leaving the interpretation centre behind as we go west to take the paved road climbing slowly and steadily up to the access point to a telephone repeater. Once at the crossroads, we take the dirt track going through patches of scrubland with Scots pine accompanied by stands of fir in the shadiest areas. These are all suitable places to see Great Spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Common Chaffinch, Rock Bunting, Common Stonechat, Black Woodpecker, European Pied Flycatcher, Great Tit and Eurasian Jay.

The trail leads us to the cliff on the South face, with a wonderful view up to this point of the western and central sections of the Pyrenees (Inner and Outer Pre-Pyrenean Mountain Ranges and the Central Depression). The route culminates in the Chapel of San Salvador. In this area we have Griffon Vulture, Golden Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, Common Crow, Lammergeier, Peregrine Falcon, Common Rock Thrush and Wallcreeper.

We can make our way back along the path running along the cliff face until we reach the place where we started, with excellent views of birds of prey hunting over the Hoya de Huesca.