Laguna Grande de Peñalara Madrid

One part from the lake to refugee require experience. That part is difficult!

One of the natural treasures of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park are the lagoons of glacial origin that sit under the Peñalara massif.

We started the route in the parking lot of the port of Cotos or puerto del paular, It is a mountain pass some 1800 metres above sea level, where can we also find the Peñalara Visitor Center.

Then, We go into a lush forest of Scots pine in which, above, you will find the source Cubeiro. After the source in a horseshoe bend is the "Mirador de la Gitana", where you can admire one of older alignments Mountain National Park, "The long rope", It is home to some of its greatest heights, Greater iron head (2380 MTS.), Hill of Valdemartin (2281 MTS.) or the ball of the world (2268 MTS.).

Once past the "Mirador de la Gitana", we leave the track and take a wide path (to our right) Wild pine that goes along the "penalty of cheese" until you reach the crossroads of big lagoon lagoon of the birds.

From here, the road continues along a Boardwalk that will leave us at the foot of the Laguna Grande.

The landscape here is overwhelming, the lagoon, Inn at the foot of the cut, you come down from the peak of Peñalara, It is one of the most representative samples of the action of glaciers that shaped for centuries the steep slopes of the massif of Peñalara.

"For centuries, Peñalara's lagoon, It was only known and frequented by shepherds, that with a superstitious fear it sought to move her at nightfall in the deep-rooted belief that clouds were loaded in the deep waters of toads, and if some beef fell on them is sinking hopelessly returning to the surface his entrails"

https://www.sierranortemadrid.org/laguna-grande-de-penalara/?lang=en