Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa

The Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa was declared in 1918 as the Parque Nacional de la Montaña de Covadonga, making it the first national park in Spain and one of the earliest in Europe. Today it covers 64,660 hectares across Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y León, organised around three limestone massifs — the Western or Cornión, the Central or Urrieles, and the Eastern or Ándara — separated by the river gorges of the Cares, Duje and Dobra. The highest point is Torrecerredo at 2,648 metres in the Western massif; in the Central massif rises the Naranjo de Bulnes or Picu Urriellu (2,519 m), the park's most iconic summit and a landmark in the history of Spanish alpinism.

The relief is the result of combined tectonics, river erosion and Quaternary glaciation acting on Carboniferous limestone that in places exceeds 2,000 metres in thickness. Glaciers carved the cirques of Vega Huerta and Trasllambrión and the hanging valleys that now feed the Cares and Sella rivers. Karstic features are abundant: sinkholes, dolines, horizontally developed caves — such as the Cueva del Agua at Posada de Valdeón — and underground systems of several dozen kilometres connecting the upper plateaus with springs at the foot of the range. On north-facing slopes below 1,400 metres, beech and oak forests form continuous cover that turns ochre and deep yellow in October; above that level, limestone grassland with rhododendron and heather dominates.

The Ruta del Cares is the park's best-known trail. It runs 11.4 kilometres along a path cut into the rock between Caín (León) and Poncebos (Asturias), with only 200 metres of accumulated elevation change along the entire route. The canal that follows the path was built between 1916 and 1921 to carry water from the Lago reservoir to the Camarmeña power station. The gorge walls reach up to 1,500 metres of vertical relief at certain points, and the Cares river runs up to 400 metres below the path — audible throughout but barely visible. Other significant routes include the ascent to the Cabaña Verónica refuge (2,325 m) from Fuente Dé, partly accessible via the cable car that gains 800 metres of altitude in four minutes, and the Cares-Dobra traverse connecting the Valdeón and Liébana valleys over two days.

The park's wildlife includes the Cantabrian brown bear (Ursus arctos pyrenaicus), with a population of around 350 individuals across the full Cantabrian range, occupying primarily the Western massif and the Valdeón area within the park. Cantabrian chamois are common throughout the high zones. The Cantabrian capercaillie inhabits the northern beech and birch forests, and the bearded vulture was reintroduced in 2009 and now has at least four stable breeding pairs. River otter and white-throated dipper live along the rivers and are easy to spot on the fast sections of the Cares and Sella. Cabrales cheese, cured in the karst caves of the Eastern massif, is the most closely linked gastronomic product to the park and can be bought directly from the creameries in Arenas de Cabrales.