Asturias - Esva Gorges Trail

The route has two well-differentiated parts, the PR AS-1, with steep slopes and beautiful views of the Paredes Valley, and the PR AS-2, a very easy hike running through splendid scenery. In San Pedro, head for the River Esva, which you cross over a stone bridge. Past the cemetery, at the last house in the village, take a path opposite the hórreo (raised granary-cum-storehouse) that leads off to the right and heads uphill among heather, chestnut and birch trees to Adrado Range. On the ascent you will come across some "cortinos", constructions designed to protect the beehives they contain from predators. On the opposite slope, to the left, you will see Restiello Dolmen. Near the crest, there are fields enclosed by large slabs of slate stuck in the ground and the typical "terrena" houses, indicating that you are in lands of the nomadic herdsmen called vaqueiros. You then reach the mountain meadow with herdsemen's dwellings called Braña de Adrado, where the trail continues on to Bustiello, passing houses, meadows and oak woods on the way. Just before you reach El Cabañón, an old stone warehouse belonging to the power station, take a path off to the left, carved into the rock in some stretches, which leads down inside the gorges to the level of the river, sometimes narrowing as it passes through an oak wood, thus creating a very suggestive shady, damp setting until you come to the old power station dam. The PR AS-2 ends at this spot, although it is worth continuing on along the recently built trail leading to the village of Calleras in Tineo, a beautiful path that runs close to the river. When you reach a stretch where it moves away from the river and heads up to Calleras, you should head back along the same route to El Cabañón to then head downhill to San Pedro, the end of this lovely route.