The Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the South of Spain, Andalucía. The name means ‘snowy mountain range’. In Spanish ‘sierra’ means the teeth of a saw and it refers to the peaks of the mountains.

Many people don’t even know that there’s a huge mountain in South of Spain and it just happens that this is where you can find the highest point of inland Spain, the Mulhacén, with a summit of 3478m. The area is also a national park and there’s even a bio reserve here as well.

Apparently this is the youngest mountain on Earth. It was born during those amazing times of the Tierra when the tectonic movements pushed whole continents into each other and in one of the last of these epic moments the Sierra Nevada was born. This is the reason that for a while there were elephants living in Spain. Even though you can’t see those anymore there are many other species that are unique to the mountain and you cannot see them anywhere else in the world. Don’t get too excited, however, they are mostly plants and insects.

The photos here were all taken from the Mirador de Trevéres at 2500m. From here you can see the sea and on clear days even the coastline of Africa. Behind you lies the mountain range in its full glory with its peaks reaching over 3000m.

Apart from the fact that it’s a hiking paradise it has another attraction: there’s a ski resort here as well! From December to February you can go to this amazing place which is just an hour from Granada and enjoy skiing or snowboarding for as long as you (or your wallet) can take it. It gets very busy here as the whole South of Spain comes here to enjoy the snow.

In my following blogs you’ll get to see the summit ‘up close’ and I’ll show you some of the nicest views around it.