GR-10 Etapa 7: Alto del León - Cabeza Lijar - Abantos - El Escorial

Trail de Alto del León hasta El Escorial (cerca al estación) por:
- Cerro Piñonero (1.7 km)
- Collado de la Gasca (2.1 km)
- Cabeza Lijar (3.3 km)
- Collado de la Mina (3.8 km)
- Refugio de la Salamanca (4.7 km)
- Refugio de la Naranjera (10.0 km)
- San Juan (11.3 km)
- Portillo de Pozos de Nieve (12.1 km)
- Abantos (13.4 km)
- Mirador Embalse del Romeral (16.4 km)

The description below is in English ( waypoints en español ):

Our route starts behind the restaurant at Alto de Léon. We go left in the direction of Peguerines and follow the road towards the antennas. The route turns into forestal paths and we soon start the climb towards the first peak on our route today: Cabeza Lijar. Beautiful views accompany us on our route to the top.
After the top we keep on following the mountain ridge passing two refuges, first Refugio de la Salamanca, later Refugio de la Naranjera, both not in great shape.
Close to the latter, you can do a small detour to Mirafor de Cuelgamuros to see the cross of Valle de los Caídos from above.
The rote after Refugio de la Naranjera climbs steeply to San Juan (note that the track is deviating from the GR for approx 100m, better to keep left).
The next part is a bit more remote and leads us to Portillo de Pozos de Nieve and beyond, always following the stone wall of Valle de los Caídos). Not much further though we are surprised by the sudden spectacularly open views from Pico de Abantos. It may suddenly be more crowded here too as this is quite a popular destination on good days (like ours).
What’s left now is the 6km descent towards El Escorial. The track will led you further, through the park of Casita de Principe, ending close to the town’s station.

Note we marked this route as Difficult, not because of technical difficulties but because of the combination of the distance, significant height differences and the rocky paths that make it harder to walk.