The most beautiful waterfalls in Spain: a spring excursion in each community

The waterfalls that we propose here are (perhaps) the most beautiful in Spain.

From all over Spain.

Not just the rainy.

And the best thing: to go to meet most of them you don't have to be an expert hiker.

A tour of all the autonomous communities through the most spectacular and essential waterfalls, to enjoy the green, fresh air and nature through 17 waterfalls.

Andalusia: Borosa River waterfalls, Santo Tomé (Jaén)

It is one of the most demanding trails in the Sierra de Cazorla, lasting almost eight hours (round trip).

And, even so, it is always full of people.

There must be a reason.

It is born in the Borosa river fish farm and goes up this tributary of the Guadalquivir threading the Elías gorge or cerrado, the vertiginous Órganos waterfall and the Valdeazores lagoon, which is hidden in a place that is more reminiscent of the Pyrenean canyons than of the Jaen olive groves.

Along the way you can see waterfalls, lagoons, emerald pools and rapids that cut through the limestone like butter.

A group of hikers on the footbridges that run along the Borosa river, in Jaén (Andalusia). JaviJ (GETTY IMAGES)

Aragon: Forau de Aiguallut waterfall, Benasque (Huesca)

Walking from Llanos del Hospital —13 kilometers from Benasque, up the valley— in two hours and a quarter you will arrive before the

or hole, as big as a stadium, where the newly born waters of the montane ice — above we will see the Aneto glacier shimmer — sneak underground after a roaring waterfall.

The most curious thing about this karst sinkhole is that it does not return the water to the Benasque valley, but sends it underground to the neighboring Arán valley, on the Atlantic slope, being the only one in the Aragonese Pyrenees that does not flow to the Mediterranean through the Ebro. It seems like magic.

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Asturias: Seimeira waterfall, Santa Eulalia de Oscos

The Asturian Hurdes.

This is how the region of Los Oscos is known, where the Principality borders Galicia, one of the most rugged lands on the Cantabrian coast, one of the most abandoned by progress, one of the most depopulated.

But rich in water.

Sources, streams, streams and rivers trace their restless channels through all the montane nooks and crannies.

Nowhere is this richness more evident than in the Seimeira waterfall, where the Murias river unravels over a rocky cliff 20 meters high, giving shape to the largest waterfall in the region.

In the village of Pumares, which belongs to the Santa Eulalia de Oscos Town Hall, the PR AS-116 path begins, which takes just over an hour to reach it.

Water is also the protagonist in the nearby council of Taramundi.

Here were once six mallets,

gigantic hammers —up to four tons— powered by the force of river water with which iron was given a thousand shapes: saucepans, frying pans, buckets, knives, braziers... One of them can be seen in action in the ethnographic complex of Os Teixois, where the Mestas stream also moves a mill, a fulling mill, a grinding wheel and a dynamo.

And last but not least, the stream is also used to cool the cider in the tavern.

Balearic Islands: Salt des Freu, Bunyola (Mallorca)

In Mallorca, where there are so many things, there are no rivers.

What there is, in the Sierra de Tramontana, are torrents, dry ravines that in rainy seasons are home to impetuous currents and waterfalls that have nothing to envy to the most beautiful on the Peninsula.

In one of those torrents, that of Coanegra, near the beautiful town of Orient, at 411 meters above sea level, is the Salt des Freu, the most famous waterfall on the Balearic island.

So much so that if you arrive after eleven in the morning at the starting point of the short walk you have to take to see it, you will not find a place to park.

This point is kilometer 8.5 of the PM-210 highway between Bunyola and Orient, 1.5 kilometers from the latter town.

Five or six cars can park in the ditch, but no more.

Following from here an old path of charcoal burners,

We will border a beautiful meadow surrounded by mountains, we will enter a shady forest of pines and holm oaks and, after 20 minutes, we will arrive at the waterfall area, where the torrent forms two 10-meter-high waterfalls and several smaller ones.

There's no way to get lost.

The site is a magnet for hikers and canyoners.

When in doubt, there is always someone to ask.

Abseiling in the Salt des Freu (Mallorca). colau / Alamy

Canary Islands: Los Tilos waterfall, San Andrés y Sauces (La Palma)

The Tilos forest, a virgin laurel forest that was declared a biosphere reserve in 1983, 19 years before all of La Palma was, houses one of the greatest treasures of this Canary Island and, therefore, one of its most visited places.

It is a good idea to get up early to see the Los Tilos waterfall as God brought it into the world.

Actually, as man brought it into the world, because it is artificial: the water is channeled to the waterfall from a hydroelectric power station.

Nine in the morning is a good time: we will see a person (or two) and a rainbow crowning the curtain of water.

The waterfall is located in the municipality of San Andrés y Sauces, very close to the Los Tilos visitor center.

In less than 10 minutes, advancing along an obvious path (there is a sign at the beginning) that goes through several well-lit tunnels, you will arrive.

: they are tiles (variety of laurels that are called lime trees here, hence the name of the place), giant ferns, palo blanco, laurels, barbusanos, viñátigo, fayas, heather... And of absolute peace, because it is still early (a there is already a crowd at eleven in the morning) and because tourism on La Palma is, for the most part, calm and respectful.

Several hikers visit the Los Tilos waterfall, on the island of La Palma.Juanjo Sierra

Cantabria: birth of the Asón, Soba

There are more than 4,000 caves in the upper Asón basin.

Through one of them, the homonymous river bursts out of the bowels of the rock in the middle of a 70-meter-high cliff (as if someone had torn a giant faucet out of the wall) and finds its waters in an idyllic valley dotted with of juicy meadows and colossal beeches.

Better birth, impossible.

From the town of Asón it takes an hour and a half to walk to the foot of the waterfall.

But without taking a step you can also see it divinely: from the viewpoint that is five kilometers from the town, going up the CA-265 highway.

Signaling the source of the Asón, in Soba (Cantabria). Ruben Earth (GETTY IMAGES)

Castilla-La Mancha: Poveda waterfall and the Mundo river, Guadalajara and Albacete

The Poveda waterfall is not natural, but caused by the rupture of an old hydroelectric dam, but that does not lessen the overwhelming beauty of the mighty Tagus River falling from 20 meters high with horrific roar.

The one that is natural is the beautiful Taravilla lagoon, formed by the waters of a spring 300 meters from the waterfall and at the bottom of which is hidden, according to legend, the treasure of Count Don Julián.

Route 8 of the Alto Tajo Natural Park joins both aquatic wonders in a two-hour walk.

For a natural setting in Castilla-La Mancha, that of the jets of the Mundo River, in the province of Albacete.

In Spain there are other channels that gush from a limestone cliff, such as the Asón from Cantabria or the Urederra from Navarre, but none that do so with the force of the World, whose flow multiplies on certain days by up to a thousand (100,000 liters per second). an abundance of water that, cascading down from a great height, offers a Niagaresque spectacle.

This aquatic explosion that occurs without prior notice (it has to rain a lot before, yes) is known as the blowout.

Six kilometers from the town of Riópar, going towards Siles on the CM-3204, the access to the Cueva de los Chorros is indicated.

From the car park, a simple 800-meter marked path leads in fifteen minutes to two viewpoints,

from where you can see the World sprout from a 300-meter cliff and fall forming several consecutive waterfalls (the largest, 80 meters) and pools that are called calderetas here.

It is forbidden to get off the road, bathe in the pools of crystalline water and eat in the area, and there is a maximum capacity of 100 cars, so at certain times (summer, especially) there is usually a queue to enter.

Castilla y León: Orbaneja del Castillo waterfall and the source of the Nervión, Burgos

To see it you don't have to walk much or little, but nothing at all.

This waterfall is created by a torrent that emerges from the Cueva del Agua, just above the houses of Orbaneja del Castillo.

A torrent that, as soon as it sees the light, crosses the town at full speed and plunges into the Ebro in a jump of 25 meters, jumping and dissolving into a thousand shreds on the mossy tuffaceous rock.

All this happens, to be even more amazing, in a bend in the Ebro canyon, the gigantic and meandering ditch 200 meters deep that the great Iberian river has dug in the limestone moors of northern Burgos.

In this province there is another unforgettable aquatic landscape.

As soon as it rises in Berberana, the Nervión River tumbles down the precipice of more than 200 meters that separates Burgos from Álava, Castilla y León from the Basque Country.

From the Casa del Parque de Monte Santiago, six kilometers from Berberana, an easy walk of just over half an hour leads to the Salto viewpoint, where you can see the Nervión form the largest waterfall in Spain.

Well, what is said well, we will see if we go after several days of heavy rain or during the spring thaw.

The rest of the year you can only see a trickle of water or nothing.

Waterfall in the town of Orbaneja del Castillo, in the province of Burgos.SylviePM (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Catalonia: Salt de Sallent, Rupit (Barcelona)

Rupit has been proposed to be part of the association The Most Beautiful Towns in Spain and has not wanted to.

This town in the Osona region has plenty of visitors.

It is not only a beautiful enclave of stone and medieval workmanship, which is accessed by a suspended pedestrian bridge.

In addition, it is the starting point for a simple walk that leads, in just under an hour, to the Salt de Sallent, the largest waterfall in Catalonia, about 115 meters high.

The itinerary, well signposted, runs through the entire Riera de Rupit showing a succession of waterfalls and waterfalls, many of them used in their day to move mills.

Next to the waterfall there is a viewpoint well shaded by a holm oak, ideal for contemplating it and gawping at the mountainous amphitheater that opens up at the observer's feet.

The viewpoint can also be accessed by walking 20 minutes from a nearby car park, but it is not the same.

Walking through the town, and from the town to the waterfall, is cooler.

Several hikers in the Salt de Sallent in Rupit, the largest in Catalonia, in the Osona region of Barcelona.ALBERTO ZAMORANO (Alamy)

Community of Madrid: Somosierra jet

Going down on foot from the port of Somosierra along the old NI, towards Segovia, it takes half an hour to reach this waterfall (also known as Chorrera de los Litueros), where the Peña del Chorro stream plunges into the void in several roaring waterfalls and vaporous, the largest of which borders on 50 meters.

Curiously, the Peña del Chorro stream is one of the first sources of the Duratón, a river famous for its gorges crowded with vultures.

A river of high flights that, already from the cradle, points ways.

Valencian Community: Brazal waterfall or Salto de la Novia, Navajas (Castellón)

Long, white and radiant, like the train of a wedding dress, the Brazal waterfall hangs from a ledge more than 30 meters high and crashes against the rocky shore of the Palancia river, forming one of the most mesmerizing aquatic landscapes in Spain.

Calling the place the Salto de la Novia, however, is not because of the waterfall, but because in the past the brides had to jump the river here if they wanted to ensure a happy and fruitful marriage.

The legend tells of one who, when going to jump, slipped and took her boyfriend who wanted to help her to the bottom of the river.

There was no wedding, of course.

Salto de la Novia is next to Navajas, a town brimming with springs (many of them mineral-medicinal) and with a monumental elm tree, planted in 1636. Walking from Navajas to the waterfall, you can see the springs of El Lugar, de la Peña, of the Virgin of Light,

del Hierro... The walker will not die of thirst, of course.

In the street of Bajada de las Fuentes there is a visitor center where from April to October two euros are charged to the many bathers who frequent this spot (the rest of the year it is free).

There begins the path that, following the Palancia river, leads in 10 minutes to the waterfall.

Extremadura: Meancera jet, Nuñomoral (Cáceres)

The Chorro de la Meancera is a beautiful horsetail, with clean and crystalline waters, which plunges between dark slates in a jump of more than 100 meters, splashing everyone who approaches from El Gasco, a village that hides, like the waterfall itself, in the abrupt and convoluted heart of Las Hurdes, near the source of the Malvellido river.

It takes two hours to go and return along a well-signposted path, but it is worth extending the walk a bit (another 45 minutes) to see the El Gasco volcano.

It's not actually a volcano, but the crater of a meteorite that fell here a million or two million years ago.

The enormous sinkhole, 50 meters in diameter, today serves no more than to make strangers rub their eyes,

Galicia: Ézaro waterfall, Dumbría (A Coruña)

Few rivers in the world, and no other in Spain, do what the Xallas does: flow into the sea with a leap.

And not just any jump.

Because the Xallas plunges into the Atlantic Ocean through a gap in the granite Mount Pindo, the Celtic Olympus, creating a beautiful 40-meter-high horsetail.

In about five minutes, you can reach the foot of the waterfall from the marina in the Coruña town of Ézaro, advancing along a wooden pedestrian walkway of just 300 meters, wide, safe and well treated so that you do not slip.

If you want to see the waterfall in another way, you can rent a kayak right there.

The Ézaro waterfall, in the municipality of Dumbría (A Coruña). Andrés Campos

La Rioja: Puente Ra waterfalls, Villoslada de Cameros

They say that the people of La Rioja, when they still spoke Latin, referred to the Sierra de Cebollera as Lumbus Aureus, due to the golden color that its snowy slopes acquire at sunset.

From there would come the name that its oldest and most sacred place still receives, the hermitage of Lomos de Orios (17th century), which is more than 1,400 meters high, in Villoslada de Cameros.

The Senda de las Cascadas begins and ends at the hermitage, which leads through a beautiful beech forest to the waterfalls more than four meters high that the Puente Ra stream gives, a tributary of the Iregua.

It is a signposted circular route of 6.6 kilometers and two hours long.

Difficulty: minimal.

Satisfaction: maximum.

Watching the Puente Ra stream run and jump, we will remember the runs and jumps of Lino Martínez, a shepherd from the area who, according to legend,

one day in 1824 he was chased by a gigantic lizard that he had fed when he was a baby.

Now the beast was preparing to devour his benefactor when, fleeing, he reached the hermitage and the Virgin opened the door for him and closed it at the moment the lizard entered, splitting the animal in two.

For this reason, at the entrance to the hermitage there is a large lizard carved from cow horn whose body is cut in two.

Navarra: source of the Urederra, Baquedano

Hundreds of waterfalls and crystalline pools form the Urederra river as soon as it rises in a limestone cliff in the Urbasa mountains.

Urederra, in Basque, means "beautiful water".

And boy is it.

For this reason, because everyone wants to see something so beautiful, to avoid crowds you have to book in advance via the web and pay five euros per vehicle parked in the parking lot of the town of Baquedano, where the 6.2-kilometre trail begins (roundtrip). turn) that leads to the source.

Region of Murcia: Usero waterfall, Bullas

El Usero is a waterfall barely two and a half meters high at the headwaters of the Mula River.

It is, then, a modest waterfall.

What makes this place extraordinary, located 1.5 kilometers from the town of Bullas, is the formidable narrowing of the channel: erosion has sculpted the sandstone and travertines of the terrain to form an immense vault, under which the river flows. and rushes into a pool or basin five meters deep.

It's not an underground waterfall, but almost.

It is not a covered natural pool, but almost.

What it is, almost, is an oasis, a humid, cool and shady corner in the middle of a land with one of the lowest rainfall rates in the Iberian Peninsula.

It is so unusual and attractive that thousands of bathers come to enjoy it in summer.

Or they came, because, to protect him,

Access is now restricted to a maximum capacity of 50 people, who can only stay in the area for a total of two and a half hours.

The rest of the year, access is free.

The Usero jump, in Bullas (Region of Murcia). JM PELEGRIN FRANCO 23268097D (Getty Images / iStockphoto)

Basque Country: Goiuri-Gujuli waterfall, Urkabustaiz (Álava)

One kilometer before reaching the small town of Goiuri-Gujuli on the A-2521 road, there is a viewpoint that overlooks one of the highest waterfalls in Spain: 105 meters!

The impressive waterfall is formed by the course of the Oiardo river, a tributary of the Altube which, in turn, is a tributary of the Nervión, as it plunges down a cliff in the foothills of Mount Gorbea.

Right above the waterfall is the Ugarzabal rural house, governed by a cheerful and loving family as they couldn't.

So there you can enjoy two waterfalls: one of water and the other of affection.

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