Vela Blanca Trail, from Mónsul to the Tower

The Vela Blanca trail leaves from the Casa del Mónsul, west of San José, and climbs along the edge of the volcanic sierra to the Vela Blanca pass, where the Sirenas viewpoint stands, below the watchtower of the same name. The Junta gives it 3.4 km each way, an hour and a half and low difficulty, along track and path; it is linear, so the return is by the same way and in total it comes to about seven kilometres. The maximum height difference is 185 metres.

A white sail among black rocks

The name comes from a pale patch at the base of the point: a dome of altered volcanic tuffs, white in colour, that stands out among the dark andesites and dacites of the rest of the sierra. From the sea it looks like the sail of a ship. On top is the tower, built in the 15th century to watch for Barbary pirate raids; it communicated with the other towers of the coast by smoke signals.

From Mónsul to the pass

From the Casa del Mónsul, beside a restored traditional cistern, you follow the same track to the west. After about 250 metres the turn-off to the Media Luna beach leaves, and eight hundred metres later the track crosses the Mónsul ravine, from which the path descends to Cala Carbón, closed to the south by Punta Redonda: its columnar rocks are lava flows that cooled suddenly on entering the water, among the most interesting formations in the park.

You pass the vehicle access barrier above Cala Carbón and the track gains height; in about four hundred metres, a bend gives a view back, with the Barronal beach in the distance. Level with Punta Colorada the path leaves the coast to cross the Parra ravine at its head, with a palm grove on the slopes and some plants unique to the cape, such as the dragoncillo or the cape pink. There is an interpretive table about the tower there. The last stretch climbs to the barrier at the pass and the Sirenas viewpoint, from which you see the volcanic rocks rising from the sea off the cape.

Before you go

The Casa del Mónsul is reached by the dirt track that leaves the San José ring road, leaving Genoveses behind, in about 4.5 km. At the start there is a car park of about fifty spaces. In summer, the Junta restricts the passage of cars without authorisation to these beaches; see the sheet on summer access to Genoveses and Mónsul.

There is little or no shade and no water along the route. Do it from October to May, or at dawn in summer. On the way back, Mónsul beach is next to the car park, and the lighthouse and Sirenas reef can be seen from the other side, arriving by car from Almería.