Peña Negra Route - PR-CC-13
A good hike to get to know another type of landscape of the Jerte Valley (the high mountain). You will find fantastic landscapes, fresh air and incredible natural viewpoints.
Open map Piornal (Cáceres), España
A route through the highest part of the mountain up to Peña Negra.
At the top of the mountain of Piornal (it is the highest village in Extremadura), the passage between the Jerte Valley and La Vera offers us a different hike to what you can find inside the Valley. High mountain landscapes, small oak groves, low scrubland and countless viewpoints with infinite views that provide us with the large rocky areas that we will find along the way.
This is a long round trip route (more than 17 km in total). For experienced walkers. And the final prize of the route is the biggest rock of all, known as PEÑA NEGRA. A colossal granite tower that if we are bold enough, we can crown (yes, with all the caution in the world). The views from there are incredible.
We can cheat and shorten our route to 12km or even less.
It all depends on where we leave the car. We can get in our vehicle and when leaving Piornal take the detour that takes us to Garganta la Olla. A little less than 2km away, at the top of the mountain (over 1200 meters altitude), we find a kind of huge semi plain that crowns the ridge of the mountain between the Valle del Jerte and La Vera. If we go 800 meters more we will cross a sign that tells us that we are at 1250 meters (just before starting the descent of the port). There we will see a track, just to our left, which begins with a Canadian pass. We cross it and, from there, we can drive as close as we want to Peña Negra (if we park right there, we will be 6 km away, walking along the track). The more we drive, the less we will have to walk.
Official route
Route: Round trip
Start and finish: Piornal (Avd. del la Vera, nº71)
Signposting: Yellow and white
Distance: 17,40 km (round trip)
Estimated time: 5 hours
Elevation gain: 370 meters
Difficulty: Low-medium
We leave Piornal by the indicated path. It will take us to Hospedería. We will continue among chestnut trees until the last farm. From here we will have the reference of Peña Negra always in the background. And there we arrive at the track that allows us to go up to Peña Negra by car. The return will be by the same path.