The Las Canchas viewpoint is an extraordinary panoramic point of the Barranca Valley, enclosed by the Guarramillas and Maliciosa massifs. The enigmatic and mysterious name of Maliciosa appears on several occasions in local chronicles from the fourteenth century and is usually related to tragic events that occurred to countrymen from nearby towns. The best known were the murders of the bandit Pablo Santos, in the Peña del Mediodía; of the shepherd nicknamed El Mirlo, on the Valdehalcones pass; and of another shepherd with an unknown name who died in the Peña de la Barranca.
Looking face to face at the mountain from the southern slope, it is easy to agree with the shepherds of yesteryear and “like Madaleta in the Pyrenees, Maliciosa is in Guadarrama, the cursed one; land of the most mistreated in the Sierra, where the rock, always desolate and naked, which time continuously sharpens and wears away, dies in its beauty, deeper and deeper”. The Pedriza del Real de Manzanares. Constancio Bernaldo de Quiros. Uneven Editions 1999.