Interactive hiking guide

Anillo de Picos de Europa

117km crossing through three regions: Asturias, Castilla y León and Cantabria. The hike shows the beauty of Northern Spain, with its lush greenery and rocky peaks.

There's no official start for the hike - you could start from various points. For us it was most convenient to start from Poncebos. Since it's a loop hike you could do it clockwise or anti-clockwise. It seems more common to do it anti-clockwise, and that's what we did as well. I wouldn't recommend doing it clockwise if you're not comfortable with climbing. There were sections that I would not be able to do in reverse: climbing down non-aided rocky sections to be exact.

We decided to camp for most of the nights, however it's possible to complete the whole hike using only the mountain huts. The waymarking on this route is not for beginners. You should be used to spotting the paths and reading the signs on the terrain.

The hike feels pretty isolated and wild. You'll see a lot of chamois (a goat-like antelope) on various occasions. You'll go through two villages and even when you're up in the mountains, you won't see towns or urbanisation in the horizon, which adds to the feeling of isolation.

A circular route crossing the three big massifs of the Picos de Europa park

LocationSpain
Difficulty
Hard
Distance117km
Stages9 days
Elevation Gain 8600m
Elevation Loss 8600m

The Elevation Profile

Total Distance

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Elevation Gain

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Point of interest

The hike combines the lush greenery of Asturias and the rocky mountains of "the Peaks of Europe."

How to get there

It could be tricky to explore Northern Spain without a car. We had a rental car and that gave us a lot of freedom. For our own convenience we started the hike from Poncebos. There were good options to park the car for free for several days and a cheap hostel to sleep before hitting the trail. Other starting points would be Sotres, Lagos de Covadonga, Posada de Valdéon and Fuente Dé. We drove all the way from Barcelona but you could also fly to Bilbao and rent a car there. For example, from Bilbao it's over two hours of driving to Poncebos.

Water & food

Water is a real concern in the whole Picos de Europa park. Water sources on the high mountains are drying up. For example in Refugio Vega de Ario they have a fountain outside but by the late afternoon the water flow reduced to droplets. However, in the morning the flow was stronger again. That being said, you shouldn't trust the natural water sources, but luckily there are many refugios along the way and they would have bottled water for purchase.

In Posada de Valdéon and Sotres you can find a minimarket to get some emergency snacks. Since we camped for most of the nights we carried all of our dry food with us. If you sleep at the refugios, dinner and breakfast are included and usually they can prepare a lunch to take away. So you can survive with a lighter backpack if you eat at the refugios.

Accommodation

The hike is designed in a way that you could sleep all the nights in a refugio. Hotel accommodation can be found in Posada de Valdéon, Sotres, Bulnes and Fuente Dé (mind you, you need to use the cable car to go down there). You can make reservations for the refugios through this link.

Wild camping

We wanted to camp most of the nights and it was relatively easy as long as you respected a few rules: an overnight camp above 1600 meters of elevation, and you pitch the tent one hour before sunset and take it down one hour after sunrise.

When to go

The best time to go is the summer season: from June to September. Some of the refugios are open from April to the end of October, so shoulder seasons are also possible. The mountains get snow and there were still snowy sections in July, for example between Refugio Collado Jermoso and Cabaña Veronica. We completed the hike in late-July.

Money

You should carry cash for payments. Even though some refugios accept cards, it's not guaranteed that there's service. Even in Posada de Valdéon town we had a problem with paying with a card because there was no service, and ended up losing most of our cash there. So take more cash than you think you need! There are no ATMs along the route.