Hoya del Portillo to Mulhacen via La Caldera
Drive down from the cortijos towards Capileira until you reach the village of Portugos – enter the village and take the windy dusty road up to the camino forestal. It is approximately a 20 minute drive to reach the T junction at the top. At the T junction, if you turned right you would drive to directly above our cortijos. But you need to turn left which is signposted zona recreativa which is the road towards the big canyon, waterfalls and Capileira. There are spectacular views of the canyon and waterfalls if you stop on the bridge. Continue driving for a further 10-15 minutes until you reach a half destroyed tarmac road. This is the road which goes from Capileira to Mulhacen and before UNESCO took over, you could have driven from here by turning right to the peaks of Mulhacen and on to Granada. But it is now closed and only opened once a year on August 5th for a Christian ceremony held on the peaks of Mulhacen.
Turn right here and follow the windy road until you get to the parking area where a chain across the road stops the car going any further. This is called Area Recreativa Hoya del Portillo. Park your car here and follow a narrow path which is signposted to Refugio Poqueira 9 km. This path goes through pine forests for about half an hour until suddenly the forested hills give way to open space. This is Poqueira Valley, a vast area of hills and canyons leading to what looks like a house some 7 kms away. After walking for approximately 2 hours you reach a road which is signposted left to the refugio and straight on towards theLaguna Caldera. Refugio Poqueira offers beds for those who wish to stay the night. Carry on walking until you reach Laguna Caldera –about half an hour. There’s hardly any water in this lake and near it there is a beautiful stone refugio Vivac.(3655m) Unlike refugio Poqueira this refugio is free and no booking required. Inside there are 2 flat solid beds and a wooden bar.
From here there is a hard uphill climb towards Mulhacen. As you climb up you get close to the sheer edge of the mountains, suddenly 1000s of feet below you can see Granada and just below another LakeMosca and in the distance the second largest peak, Veleta (3394 M) amongst the other peaks majestically reaching for the sky. You often encounter groups of wild goats up here led by machosthe male native goat with big horns. Once you have reached Mulhacen it is just gentle walking back to your car at Hoya Del Portillo.