Gorges and ravines of the Serranía de Cuenca

Rivers cutting limestone

Gorges are the other side of muelas, flat-topped limestone hills: rivers have gradually cut down into the limestone, leaving canyons with vertical walls. The Hoz de Beteta is the Guadiela’s canyon outside Beteta, with walls over 80 m high, lime trees on the floor and an anticline visible from the Armentero viewpoint. The Hoz de Priego, on the Escabas, is 2.6 km long with walls over 400 m high. Between Uña and Villalba de la Sierra, the Júcar canyon runs for 11 km between walls about 200 m high and can be seen from the Ventano del Diablo.

There are many more. The Guadiela’s Hoz de Tragavivos can be viewed from the Tragavivos viewpoint; the PR-CU 1 short-distance trail runs through the Hoz Somera in Carrascosa; the River San Martín is confined in the Víllora gorge; the Gritos opens its own beside Valeria. Timber driven by the gancheros, river timber drivers, came down these gorges, and griffon vultures and golden eagles breed on their walls. Each river’s history is told in The Escabas, The Guadiela and The Júcar.

Good conduct

A gorge is not a place to go down to the riverbed: canyon rivers rise quickly. Follow the paths and view them from above, keeping away from the edge.