Majaceite River Trail, from El Bosque to Benamahoma

The Majaceite river trail links Benamahoma with El Bosque along the river through a gallery forest that forms a tunnel of shade in summer. The Junta describes it as one of the most walked trails in the natural park, and with good reason: it is easy, cool and joins two villages with bars and accommodation at each end. The Visitor Window leaflet gives it about 10.4 km and 3 h 30 round trip; the park's printed leaflet, about 5.3 km and 2 hours each way. No permit is needed.

Before you go: works after the storms

The storms of winter 2026 damaged the trail in about 40 places, with fallen trees and rockslides, and the Junta began works to repair it in March. Ask at the El Bosque visitor centre (956 70 97 33) whether it is fully open before you set out. The leaflet itself warns that in periods of heavy rain stones can fall from the slopes, which are made of very loose material.

The route

From Benamahoma, the trail leaves from the lower part of the village, next to the El Bujío inn, along Calle Cuesta de la Venta, and crosses a wooden bridge. Very close by the river rises, at the Nacimiento spring, beside the Water Ecomuseum, housed in a former flour mill that still keeps part of its machinery. Next to it was a fulling mill where the wool for Grazalema blankets was treated; today it is a trout farm.

Downstream, the path runs among poplars, willows, oleanders, sarsaparilla and honeysuckle, tucked between the Sierra del Albarracín and the Sierra del Labradillo. Along the way you pass the remains of mills and fulling mills, a weir that still holds back water and the old power station, which stopped working in 1963. At the end the riverbank opens onto vegetable plots and olive trees and you reach El Bosque, near the El Castillejo botanical garden.

What to see by the river

The Junta presents the Majaceite as the southernmost trout river in Europe. In the water live barbel, trout and grass snakes, and with luck the otter. Among the trees you hear blackbirds, robins and nightingales all year, and orioles in spring and summer; sometimes a kingfisher flies past.

Getting there and parking

There is parking at the start of the trail in Benamahoma and in El Bosque, next to the visitor centre. It is a linear trail: if you don't want to walk back, leave a car at each end. Take water and non-slip footwear; the surface is earth and stones. It suits children who can walk and dogs on a lead.

To eat or sleep at the end of the route, in El Bosque you have the Hotel Las Truchas and the Hotel Rural Enrique Calvillo.