A journey through time

Exploring these regions of Teruel feels like traveling back in time. Their geology is among the most diverse in the Iberian Peninsula, often revealing fossils hundreds of millions of years old. Yet the folds of these ancient mountains also preserve traces of more recent times—ways of life that have mostly vanished.

Abandoned terraces, stone corrals, threshing floors, shepherd shelters, and old farmsteads all testify to the passage of time, when small-scale farming, livestock, and coal mining sustained the area. Coal mining is now gone, replaced by open-pit aggregate quarries. New scars appear across the landscape: vast solar and wind farms and industrial livestock farms. This route invites you, the traveler, to witness a threatened territory.

But a journey is mostly through space. Forest tracks, farm roads, quiet backroads, and easy trails connect villages and unique sites: the Río Martín Cultural Park, the Aliaga Geological Park, the mining museums of Utrillas, Ariño, and Escucha, and various interpretation centers dedicated to rock art, paleontology, and Iberian culture.

The real protagonist, however, is the landscape itself. Ravines, sunny hillsides, ridges, and mesas shape the old mountain ranges, surrounded by traditional crops—wheat, olives, vines, and almonds—and dotted with beehives. Mediterranean forests of black and red pine alternate with shrubland and oak groves. The Martín and Guadalope Rivers dominate the watershed, joined by tributaries like the Aguasvivas, which come alive after rain.

The route winds through these lands, linking villages and vistas I’ve discovered over the years since fate made me a guest here. It starts in Utrillas, in the Cuencas Mineras region, though GPX files are available if you wish to adapt it. The route is best done clockwise for the terrain.

My goal with La Corraliza is simple: to attract more cyclists to enjoy these landscapes and this culture; a modest project, and a declaration of love for this land.