El Torcal: Guide to this 150 million year old landscape

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We have just spent the night in our motorhome in the car park at a place called El Torcal. It might not sound interesting to say we have spent a night in a car park but this was no ordinary car park! This car park was at the top of a 1200 metre high mountain called El Torcal Natural Park and it has the most amazing scenery that I have seen anywhere.

I have visited the incredible Grand Canyon in the USA and The Blue Mountains in Australia and El Torcal is just as good. What makes El Torcal so good is the pre-historic landscape. This area has unique limestone formations that were formed 150 million years ago and there is even evidence of human habitation here dating back to 5500BC.

Where is El Torcal?

El Torcal Natural Park is located about 45 km north of Malaga and 13 km south of Antequera. There is a car park on the main A7075 road but I would recommend driving through the barrier up a 3.5km mountain road to the visitor centre at the top. There are spectacular views as you drive up this road and the road is wide enough to take a motorhome. There is a large car park at the top with plenty of spaces for motorhomes, but it can get busy at weekends and the top car park can get full.

From the car park you can see the coast at Malaga on a clear day but the highlight for me was the 45 minute walk we did along a well marked path that took us through the most remarkable landscape I have ever seen.  There are many walks in the area and you must do one to fully appreciate this place. My photographs don’t do the landscape justice but it was like walking through a prehistoric landscape. Vultures were circling above us, perhaps hoping for some lunch!

Staying overnight at El Torcal

Despite a sign in the visitor centre saying “no overnight parking” we spoke to a German couple with a motorhome parked next to us and agreed between us to stay overnight in the car park. After all the visitors and staff had left it was eerily quiet, apart from  the occasional bells of mountain goats wandering by, and we set about making some pasta for our evening meal. Sleeping and eating in such a remote place at 1200 metres above sea level felt exciting with the added bonus that it was a free nights motorhome stop!

After eating we stood outside in the cold and watched an incredible night sky under millions of stars with no light pollution and slept well with no worries about safety. After all, who would want to drive up a mountain road with sheer drops in the pitch black in the hope of finding some motorhome owners asleep in a car park at the top of a mountain.

Here are some photos that I took at El Torcal but I don’t think they do the place justice. You have to be there to witness the beauty for your self.

El Torcal car park
El Torcal car park
El Torcal Spain
El Torcal Spain
El Torcal Spain
El Torcal Spain
El Torcal Spain
El Torcal Spain

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