Valderejo Natural Park

Valderejo Natural Park covers 3,496 hectares at the western edge of the municipality of Valdegovía, in the province of Álava. Declared in 1992, it was the Basque Country's first natural park. The Valderejo valley is an almost uninhabited territory — only Lalastra retains a stable population, while Ribera, Villamardones and Lahoz were abandoned decades ago — and this absence of human pressure has allowed the forest to reclaim the slopes with a density and maturity rarely found along the Cantabrian strip. From the valley floor, the silence is broken only by the murmur of the Purón River and the soaring of vultures above the limestone cliffs.

The landscape blends Atlantic and Mediterranean forest depending on aspect. Shaded slopes are covered in beech and Portuguese oak woodland of good stature, with hazel, holly and box understorey. Sunnier and lower areas support holm oak, accompanied by Scots pine in transitional sections. Valley floors retain riparian vegetation of willows, ashes and alders along the Purón. The mix of climatic influences — Cantabrian from the north, Mediterranean from the south — produces a plant diversity noticeable in the contrast between hillsides just a few hundred metres apart.

The most prominent fauna is the griffon vulture colony, the largest in Euskadi, breeding on the limestone cliffs of the Purón gorge. Access to the upper sections of the park is restricted during the breeding season to avoid disturbing the birds. Alongside the griffon vulture, the Egyptian vulture, golden eagle and goshawk complete the raptor community. Among mammals, the wildcat, roe deer and red squirrel are regular residents. The Purón River holds native brown trout and white-clawed crayfish in its best-preserved stretches.

The park's trail network has nine signposted routes. The Purón River gorge trail is the flagship: it descends for about 6 kilometres between limestone walls up to 200 metres high, with passages between rock blocks where the river changes direction and the echo amplifies the sound of water. The full route (out and back) takes around 4 hours at moderate difficulty. Other paths connect the abandoned settlements of Ribera and Villamardones, where stone walls and threshing-floor remains testify to the farming life that sustained this valley until the second half of the 20th century. The trail climbing to the Portillo de Lerón offers views over the Ebro valley from the park's southern rim.

The Lalastra Interpretation Centre is the starting point for all routes and houses a permanent exhibition on the geology, wildlife and history of the valley. The building occupies a restored village house and has parking. Valderejo works as a disconnection destination: with no mobile phone reception across much of the park, no night lighting and a low visitor density even in peak season. The experience is that of a valley that time passed by and that nature is reclaiming step by step.