Hiking the Los Cahorros de Monachil Trail near Granada

January 23rd, 2026 

I decided that I needed a change from checking out castles, churches and towns and it was time to experience some good ol’ Mother Nature.  Googling about hikes in southern Spain, a highly recommended one was the Los Cahorros de Monachil Trail.  On one website I read that there was a 4 or 7.9 kilometre loop that you could choose from, on another one it stated a 6 km loop.  Okay, I’ll see when I get there I guess.

 

I drove about an hour and a half from Alcala la Real where I had slept, through the city of Granada on its expressways (which thankfully was painless, the traffic was fine) and found the gravel parking area by the small town of Monachil.  I parked Octi, packed a baguette sandwich, some snacks and water into my backpack and set off.

 

The view at the start of the trail.

Almost immediately there were a few little suspension bridges.

Looking back from where I came.

Not sure if this used to be someone's home...

If it was, it would have been peaceful and quiet.

A much bigger suspension bridge.

There weren’t many other hikers on the trail.  I passed a group that looked like a family with teenage kids early on but then didn’t see anyone for the next hour or so.

That is a decent sized suspension bridge.

Not the most impressive waterfall, going over a concrete slab.

For the next kilometre or so I walked on the concrete embankment that ran beside the Rio Monachil.

This doesn't look like much, but that overhanging rock did make me have to squat down as I passed under it.

No, I wasn't worried about falling in the river!

Looking back from where I came.

Approaching a little tunnel created by massive boulders that fell into the gorge.  It was nice of trailmakers to add the odd hand hold here and there.

Thanks to recent rain, the little river was higher than normal, with lovely brown water.

A broken section...the river is trying to reclaim its path.  Luckily it was still solid enough to walk on.

This looks easy, but I actually had to take my backpack off and crawl on all fours to get through this section.

Looking back...there's a river somewhere in there.

One last bridge to cross over the river before starting to head back, so this was the furthest point on the loop away from the parking lot.

The trail is going to head back up the hill on the right.

That's the river canyon.

I came from down there.

A better view of the river canyon.

The weather forecast was thankfully incorrect...it was much nicer than predicted.

I was a bit surprised when I go to this road back down towards the parking lot (still probably 1.5 km away).  It had only taken me about one hour and fifteen minutes to get to this point.  It certainly couldn't have been the 7.9 km loop, but it was longer than 4 km...must have been the 6 km.  It seemed to be the most hiked trail as I always took the "main" trail when I reached any forks.  I had read that it was best to hike the loop counterclockwise, which I did, as this was just a boring 1.5 km decline...or incline if you went clockwise which would have been a lame way to start your hike.

This was some little horse ranch with a funny sign...

At the bottom is says "Feed the bodies to the dogs".

Looking back.  The trail went from the right side of the photo, part way up those mountains, over to the left and back to here.

I had read that the trail the 7.9 km loop should take 3-4 hours, which is what I had budgeted with my timetable of the day, but here I was, back at Octi in an hour and forty minutes.  I didn’t even eat my baguette sandwich; I had just taken it on a walk!

 

Okay great.  It was only 1:30 pm and that gave me lots of time to drive to my next campsite, which I was a little excited about.  I randomly found it on my camping app, and it was called “Fort Bravo”.  It was a fake old Western town where they occasionally shot “Spaghetti Western” movies but when they weren’t, there was a daily show that they put on with cowboys on horses shooting their pistols.  Now that’s something different for a campground!  The show was on at 4 pm and Google Maps told me I’d arrive at 3:39…I had to get moving.

Hard to see in this photo, but those are the snow covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada Park on the horizon.

See them?

The range is over 7000' high above sea level.

Now this is looking more "Western-like" terrain.

Fort Bravo!

I pulled up to the gate at Fort Bravo behind a couple of other campervans.  One man was at the kiosk, I assumed paying his camping fees.  He got in his motorhome and entered the park.  I hopped out of the van and in my Spanglish asked the guy behind the counter about camping.  He responded that there was no camping allowed as they were actually shooting a movie today!  Cool.  However, that also meant there was no Western show at 4 pm.  He told me that I could still go in and check out the place, but it was still 23 Euros - the normal price which normally also included seeing the show and camping.  That’s seemed like a bit of a ripoff. 

 

I jumped back in the van and drove a few kilometres away, pulled over and checked my app for another place to stay.  I found a campground another 45 minutes away.  I was tired but figured I could handle that.  However, just as I circled a roundabout before getting back on the highway, I noticed a bunch of campervans in a big, unpaved area by a gas station.  All of the vehicles were facing out towards a nice view of the hills in the distance.  I did a quick check on my camping app and sure enough, this was a spot you could stay overnight for free…problem solved!

Pretty sweet spot!

Octi is jutting out behind the second camper from the left.

Around 3:30 am, the wind really picked up, and I woke up from Octi rocking back and forth.  For the next 2-3 hours I must have woken up 4-5 times thanks to Mother Nature.  There was a large, old truck that had been converted into a mini-home and I heard them drive off around 4 am.  Their truck must have really been rocking in the wind.  

The joys of van life!