Bardenas Reales Nature Reserve

To the southeast of Navarra lies this nature reserve, with a surface area of 41,845 hectares, declared a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 2000.

It is a semi-desert landscape, in part, where torrential rains have shaped a terrain of gypsum and clay. Vast plains are interspersed with ravines, cliffs and hills that reach up to 600 meters in height. This unique region is not part of any specific municipality, but 19 municipalities, two valleys of the Pyrenees and a monastery share the rights to these lands. It borders to the north, west and south with the municipalities of Carcastillo, Santacara, Mélida, Caparroso, Villafranca, Cadreita, Valtierra, Arguedas, Tudela, Cabanillas, Fustiñana and Buñuel. To the east, it borders with the autonomous region of Aragon, which also has its own Bardena outside this natural space.The so-called White Bardena brings together the whitest landscapes, with gypsum substrate and steppe vegetation. Aleppo pine forests and clay soils are found in the so-called Bardena Negra. Before the declaration of a natural park (1999), the scenic wealth of this environment was already partially protected in the form of three Nature Reserves, two of them within the current park. This is the case of Vedado de Eguaras, where you can admire a small cirque surrounded by gypsum ravines and populated by junipers, Aleppo pines and rosemary. Eurasian eagle-owls, golden eagles, and Egyptian vultures nest in the so-called “Rincón de Bú”. The La Negra Falls, for their part, are a series of crevasses that reach a depth of up to 270 meters. Overall, the Bardenas Reales are home to some 24 birds of prey (peregrine falcon, booted eagle, griffon vulture, etc.), as well as steppe birdlife, such as the great bustard and the lark.The natural park is also home to more than 28 different species of mammals, eight of which are micromammals such as the little shrew or the Moorish mouse. The natural and artificial water basins are home to trout, barbel and tench, while newts and frogs coexist around them with a multitude of reptiles. The ocellated lizard, the ladder snake or the Spanish pond turtle are just some of them.