Sierra Nevada Nature Reserve

Like a necklace that frames Sierra Nevada National Park is the nature reserve that has the same name. Distributed between the provinces of Granada and Almería, it shares with its namesake a large part of the high and medium altitudes ​​that make the colossal southern mountain massif a unique space on the continent. It boasts one of most varied plant lives in Europe, dozens of endemic insects, white peaks that reach for the sky, as well as infinite possibilities for hiking of all levels.

At the time, the regional government of Andalusia named all of Sierra Nevada as a nature reserve (1989), with the State later declaring its central core a national park (1999), taking half of the reserve's hectares. Although most of the region's highest mountains are in the national park (overlooked by Mulhacén, the tallest peak on the Iberian peninsula), the outer belt that makes up this natural park is undeniably a space that is indistinguishable from the other, and when combined, they make up another entity: the Sierra Nevada Biosphere Reserve. A great way to discover Sierra Nevada is, of course, on foot. For example, taking the trail known as Gran Recorrido (GR) 240, or Sulayr (the name given by the Arabs to the massif: the mountain of the sun). There are approximately 300 km of circular route (the largest of this kind in Spain) crossing the national park and nature reserve, divided into 19 theoretical stages, on a non-stop trip that takes in beauty, nature and culture.  If you are quite brave enough to complete this route (or you don't have the time), there are still plenty of shorter routes, often around the periphery of the nature reserve.