What a day out!! Making the most of a stunning, sunny day we decided that we needed to start exploring the local hills (mountains) a bit more and so headed up to Puerto Ventana 1587m. This pass forms the border between Asturias and Leon and is the southern-most point of Teverga. It’s a great starting point for several hikes as it lets you access the high mountains with the minimum of ascent (albeit there’s still some ascent!!).

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From Casa Quiros there are two ways of getting there: one shortish, roughish one, and a longer but smoother method. The quickest and more adventurous way is to drive east up the valley from Casa Quiros and, at Santa Marina, take the road up to Ricabo which just before the village is signed off right up to Puerto Ventana. This road then turns into a mainly unpaved road for about 11km leading slowly but surely up to Puerto Ventana. TBH the track is pretty decent and has no scary drop offs or bad patches – it’s tarmac where needed and is a reasonably gentle slope most of the way – this takes about 45mins from Casa Quiros depending on stops at the viewpoints. However, if you weren’t happy to do this in a rental car for example then the alternative is to go north towards Proaza and take the road up to San Martin (Teverga) and follow the valley south from there ( which actually covers some spectacular territory) to arrive at Puerto Ventana in about the same time. A good call maybe to go there one way and return the other…

Anyway from Puerto Ventana we decided to walk to to the peak known as Huerto del Diablo 2140m (the Devil’s garden – is the direct translation). This turned out to be a simple to navigate but very beautiful and not too challenging – our 10 year old son came with us and kept up the whole way. The walk starts on a wide easy to follow track which turns uphill and is the old miners track – the hills here were covered in small mines for many years – and soon gains height to give views of the high ridges and mountains to the south which lead to the Fontanes and Peña Ubiña – the highest points in the Ubiñas group at 2417m. At this point we saw what we think was a Golden Eagle gliding gently above us! From the end of the track we moved up and traversed across onto more open, rocky and mountainous terrain to take a wide gully which led steeply up to a coll.

From the coll we could see our objective easily enough and crossing a low valley we climbing up again onto a broad, rocky shoulder which led to the summit. The views from this shoulder were amazing – wide open vistas to the south of the majestic peaks of the Fontanes and the huge, precarious looking ridges between us and them. Once on the shoulder we reached the top of Huerto del Diablo in about 10 more minutes and relaxed with a bite of chocolate and and few photos. From there the obvious descent was down a wide ridge then ascend to take in the second peak of Huerto del Diablo south and to drop down to the south to arrive back at the top of the gully we’d climbed up.

Our ascent from Puerto Ventana

The descent was very welcome as the day had heated up and all the sets of legs were getting a bit tired. And so in about 45 minutes more we arrived very hot and a bit bother to the big fuente (spring) at the start of the route. Freezing and refreshing in equal parts we dumped our shoes and socks and bathed our feet before nipping back to the parking. Final tally – from the parking around 11km with about 670 metres of ascent. With stops we took around five hours.

Fauna – Golden Eagle, Griffon Vulture and either large mountain goats or rebecos (a type of mountain deer).

As a note this would easily make a great trail run for anyone of that inclination…

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