Puertos de Áliva from Fuente Dé — circular in the Parque Nacional Picos de Europa

The route is well-marked in yellow and white. Good shoes are essential, as the last 4 km is gravel and partially unpaved through forest. It can be slippery in wet conditions.

Fantastic mountain panoramas, even if the road is a bit boring to walk on. But then the absolute highlight, visible from the terrace of the Hotel Avila cafeteria: three young golden eagles sitting in their nest, waiting for their parents to bring them food. At times, up to 10 eagles could be seen in the sky at once.

It's a hike with beautiful, expansive views. You can easily spot vultures and possibly eagles. However, most of the route is on a wide gravel path suitable for 4x4s. This can certainly be seen as a disadvantage. Most of the route is in the open sun. Only the lower 6km are sheltered by trees.

Beautiful climb. At just under 15 kilometers and 1,200 meters in altitude, you approach the high alpine landscape and hike through several alpine pastures beforehand. However, riders have damaged some of the lower sections of the path (in the forest) so badly that they are barely passable in spring. At the end of the path, you have to queue at the cable car, as many tourists want to get a taste of the mountain air for the current price of 17 euros. In mid-June, it took a whole hour in the afternoon to get into the gondola down.

The first 8km are an easy walk downhill, but once you get to the small path you have to pay attention. The devil is in the tail, with some tougher climbs (at least for 70+). And also some steeper descents. Walking sticks (for the less trained) are not an unnecessary luxury. The beautiful landscapes do compensate for the effort in the tougher parts of the road.

From Fuente Dé you can take the cable car up 800 meters in less than 4 minutes. At an altitude of 1,850 meters is a viewing platform, Mirador el Cable. From here you have a magnificent view over the surroundings of Fuente De and the massif of the Picos de Europa. You can take the cable car back or hike as we did. It's a long walk; we spent a total of 6 hours on it. But well worth it! Mainly good pen wide paths but part was spicy and steep, also very rocky. Anyway, we enjoyed the tour!

After looking out of the bedroom window at the cloud-covered peaks of the Picos de Europa, I take my time (too much) and arrive in Fuente De just before twelve. The weather is great here now - but by the time I've finally gained the 750 meters in altitude to the mountain station with the overcrowded cable car and can enjoy the dizzying view from the Mirador de El Cable back down into the valley, it's already 1:00 p.m. Actually quite late to start a longer hike, but in the end I start walking. The path between peaks over 2500m is quite crowded at first, but most just take a short walk and find a nice spot for a picnic, some also detour to climb the Torre de los Horcados Rojes. I walk in a wide arc through the barren but impressive high mountain landscape back down into the valley after I reach the highest point of my vacation at about 1.5km - 1930m. The path itself is actually not really my thing - a rather boring wide gravel path, which also serves as access to the Refugio de Áliva, which is beautifully situated in the mountains. But this way I can enjoy the landscape in peace and quiet on the mostly slight gradient and walk down into the valley quite comfortably. A spectacular sight for me as a low mountain hiker. After about 8.5km I come to the Portilla del Boquejón - a narrow passage that separates the barren high mountain landscape from much more lush vegetation below about 1300m altitude. After the first bushes, the first tree comes quickly and suddenly I'm walking through the forest - if there wasn't a view of the rugged peaks of the Picos, it would almost be like hiking through the local low mountain range. Finally, the view of the several hundred meter high rock faces opens up again, which form the amphitheater of Fuente De standing in a semicircle and after another two kilometers I am back at the starting point around 6 a.m. - early enough to still be on the way back to my holiday apartment Visit Mogrovejo and enjoy a reward ice cream there.

Going up with the cable car, we leave from there to go down 900 m. It can be done in reverse, and then go down with it.