La Pedriza

General facts

La Pedriza is a geological feature of great scenic and leisure interest. It is located on the southern slopes of the Guadarrama mountain range. Access is from Manzanares el Real, a municipality northwest of the Community of Madrid (Spain). It is one of the largest granitic ranges of Europe and holds numerous peaks, rocky cliffs, streams and meadows.Geological forces have created a remarkable boulder field of strangely eroded granitic outcrops.

Nearly a thousand rock climbing routes of all difficulties are available to rock climbers. Hiking is also popular in La Pedriza, especially on weekends.

The 32 square kilometres occupied by La Pedriza lie within the Regional Park of the High River basin of Manzanares, the largest park of the Community of Madrid.

In this zone, vegetation is sparse, but there are Mediterranean shrubs like the rockrose, and alpine varieties like fabaceaes. The fauna is rich in birds of prey; the breeding colony of over 100 pairs of Griffon Vultures is the largest in the Madrid area.

Personal opinion

La Pedriza is a well-known place for us as we've been there a lot of times, mostly to refresh our minds and escape from a torn noisy city as Madrid. Pedriza is a special place either if you want to spend a whole day sunbathing or swimming in the streams, or if you want to go trekking to the rocky peaks and admire the great mighty vultures and the breathtaking views. You could also meet a tribe or two of Spanish Ibex - wild goats, pasturing peacefully around there.

My recommendation

There's always a long car queue to enter the Regional Park so we prefer to park our car in the village of Manzanares el Real and take the first trekking route into the park.

I recommend you the route to the peaks you can see from the village. Once arrived there you can almost touch the mighty vultures flying over you; besides, from over there you can actually see the whole valley and if it's a sunny day you can also notice the four towers of the beautiful city of Madrid. The views are spectacular.

Here are our memories from La Pedriza captured in photographs. Enjoy your visit here and there!