Nacimiento del río Cuervo Natural Monument

A river emerging from rock

The Cuervo emerges beside Vega del Codorno, below the Muela de San Felipe, at about 1,490 metres. Water filters through limestone, runs through passages and emerges loaded with lime, which it deposits as tufa. This has built a barrier 300 metres long and up to 25 high, damming the river and forming the waterfalls.

The Natural Monument covers 1,709 hectares.

Guide Fernando Carreras distinguishes two things often confused: the spring, which he says flows all year, and the curtain of water over the tufa, which depends on how much the aquifer has recharged and how the water is distributed. A photograph of a major flood may bear no resemblance to what can be seen a few weeks later. Nearby, behind Vega del Codorno’s last neighbourhoods, the Arroyo de la Tobilla falls over another barrier of tufa and moss that, in high water, is heard before it is seen.

Plan your visit

The SL-CU 14 local trail passes the waterfalls, a viewpoint over the curtain-like tufa, the still pool and flat ground filled in by the barrier, and ends at the source. The PR-CU 78 short-distance trail leads to the rock shelter and a peat bog, and climbs to the muela, a flat-topped limestone hill.

Before you travel

Tufa is fragile: view it from the boardwalks, without stepping on it or pulling off moss. In winter it freezes.

Combine with

The source has its own entry, and the interpretation centre is nearby.