Kiersten Rowland describes a 2 day trek camping by high mountain lakes and enjoying some of the wildest scenery and nature that the Sierra Nevada National Park has to offer
Our plan was to be in the mountains for 3 days and walk from the rangers station at Hoya de Portillo above Capileira to Jerez de Marsquesado, a crossing of an area of the Sierra Nevada that Jane and I had not been to before. We took our dog Max as our fox deterrent.
Bivouac site at Siete Lagunas
After Richard had dropped us off, we made our way up through the forest and onto the main track towards Mulhacen. Just off the road and the normal path up Mulhacen we came across a new refuge shelter, so we spent a while exploring this shelter before continuing our trip towards our first nights destination at Siete Lagunas.
Whilst continuing up towards the traverse path we were privileged to see three massive Griffon Vultures taking off from the south ridge of Mulhacen. The traverse route to Siete Lagunas is now clearly marked by big cairns and our path all the way to our overnight stop was just about free of snow.
Lakes, waterfalls and Alcazaba
We arrived at Siete Lagunas to find the river in flood conditions. Anywhere green was wet or had cows eating it, so we made our beds in the bivy site next to the caves and waterfall. The temperature all day was very warm until an hour before sunset when a cold wind blew in.
Max positioned himself so he could defend all sides of our bivy site from foxes. We wrapped Max in a down jacket thinking he would get cold from the wind blowing, but he soon disbursed of it. A little bird known as an Alpine Accentor came and visited us just as dark was falling, it sat on the rock above our bivy site and sang its sweet song. We had no visit from foxes that night and would have slept really well had the wind not been howling through out the night making our biviys russle continuously.
Laguna Hondera at Siete Lagunas
The next morning we stayed in bed later than we planned. We only had summer walking trousers on and couldnt bring ourselves to get out of our snug sleeping bags into the early morning light with the wind blowing strong until the sun arrived. By 8am we were on the move again.
Big country north of Alcazaba
We bi-passed Alcazaba and eventually arrived at a pass that would give us access to the ridge beyond. The ridge we needed to be on to lead us eventually to Jerez de Marsquesado. We had a steep traverse across loose stones and some patches of soft snow and popped out above the waterfall, perfect. We ascended up to the ridge and viewed what laid ahead of us. The view north is an amazing sight. The valley is enormous and the distance to be covered seems impossible. Alas, that was to be the case for us as my feet were not in good shape. I'd had too many trips before this one and they had not had time to recover. Rather than risk another 2 days of walking, we came to the decision to return to Trevelez!
Snow covered Laguna de Vacares and the ridge north
It was simply stunning up there, the smell from the broom growing on the mountainsides, the beautiful tiny delicate alpine flowers were everywhere, the birds seem to escort us on our way and the mountains still had lots of snow left on them. There was no shortage of water! What a beautiful part of the world I'm lucky enough to live in.
This was the first overnight trip that Max had been on, and he had an absolute ball. Plenty of snow and running water around meant we didnt have to carry spare water for him. He eats very little considering the amount of energy he is using. I would recommend anyone camping in the Sierra Nevada to take a Max dog along with them. He keeps the foxes away, is a great companion and a joy to have around, even if he does disappear chasing Ibex, knowing full well he will never catch one.
It was a long trip back to Trevelez and my feet were sore and aching from the 1600m descent. We had had a 13 hour day, hadn't achieved what we had set out to do, but had had a wonderful time in glorious mountain scenery. What could be better?
Visit the high mountain lakes of the Sierra Nevada in 2 or 3 day treks