Bardenas Reales, the desert that starts past the last orchard
An hour south of Pamplona, Navarre abruptly stops being green. What follows is a semi-desert of clay and gypsum, carved by rain far more than by wind — and crossable in four to six days without ever pushing.
A desert carved by water
The road leaves Tudela to the south and, for twenty minutes, shows nothing of what is coming: orchards, greenhouses, the canal. Then the tarmac ends, the earth turns white, and the horizon steps back all at once.
The Bardenas are not a desert of sand but of marl and gypsum. What carved them is water: a few violent storms a year, on ground that holds nothing back. The result comes in three parts — El Plano, the Bardena Blanca and the Bardena Negra — and only the second looks like the picture people carry of it.
Going around the range
Part of the Bardenas is a military firing range, closed and signposted. Going around it costs you nothing: the open tracks are more than enough, and the villages along the edge — Arguedas, Valtierra — still keep houses dug into the cliff.
After a storm, you do not set off.
There is no village inside. The bodegas of Arguedas, cut into the sandstone at the edge, are the closest thing to one: wine was stored there, and people slept there in summer.
The rest is a matter of tracks, of gates you close behind you, and of one simple rule: after a storm, you do not set off.
Practical notes
- When to go
- March to May, then October. Summer often passes 35 °C without a scrap of shade.
- Getting there
- Pamplona and Zaragoza an hour away, Bilbao two. Last fuel at Tudela or Arguedas.
- Access
- Main entrance via Arguedas. Dirt tracks, passable in an ordinary car in dry weather.
- Sleeping in a van
- Aire at Arguedas below the bodegas, campsites at Arguedas and Valtierra. Wild camping is forbidden in the nature park.
- Worth knowing
- The military range is closed to the public and marked. Tracks close after a storm.
- Allow
- Two days for the Bardena Blanca, four to six to add the Cinco Villas.
What not to miss
- 1CastildetierraThe lone butte everyone photographs — at first light for preference.
- 2El RallónA balcony over the Bardena Blanca, ten minutes on foot from the track.
- 3The bodegas of ArguedasCellars dug into the sandstone, still in use.
Castillo de Sádaba
A fortress standing alone above the village. It is the way the loop extends eastward, if you have two more days.
The route in pictures
First light on the Piskerra track: the light changes every quarter of an hour.
Loop from Leciñena
- 1Cartuja de Nuestra Señora de las Fuentes · Laguna de Sariñena
- 2Santa Iglesia Catedral de la Transfiguración del Señor · Plaza de toros de Huesca
- 3Museo de Huesca · Palacio de los Reyes de Aragón
Free — the copy lands in your trips, yours to edit.
Also worth reading
The Cañón del Río Lobos, a fault line in Castile
The international Douro, a border at the bottom of the canyon
A starting point, a few wishes — ViaLooma builds the trip day by day, map, stops and roadbook included.