El Encinar de Abrucena – trail running circular from Abrucena (PR-A 15)

Sierra Nevada is a mountain range of contrasts, it is immense, it is high and is located to the south of the Iberian Peninsula, with these conditions it offers an endless variety of natural ecosystems, climatological environments in each season, permanent snow for several months a year and has slopes mountain with irresistible sporting challenges on summits, forests and slopes for mountain sports fans of all tastes and modalities. And the best thing is that they are valleys and mountains inhabited since ancient times by peoples who have been creating their popular culture, customs and ways of living in each stage of history. The towns in the Sierra Nevada sector of Almería, on both sides, retain their Moorish personality and urban layouts adapted to the relief of the terrain, with stepped and narrow streets, whitewashed facades and many of them are surrounded by orchards, ditches and terraces of crops in the foothills of the mountains. In our next trail running route we have chosen the surroundings of Abrucena, the highest town on the northern slopes of the mountains, at the foot of the great two-thousanders that draw the Almerian silhouette of the Sierra Nevada National Park. The town occupies the steep slopes of a hill between ravines, stepped terraces of orchards and fruit trees and fields of almond and olive trees. The route passes through the different environments that define the natural quality of the territory and the rural charm, from the typical Andalusian-style streets of the urban complex to the native oak forests of the mountains and the mountain ravines, passing through old farmhouses converted into rural accommodation. and beautiful fields of almond trees, ending with the ditch that has provided water to the population since Arab times.