Peñalara Visitor Centre and Cotos car park

The Peñalara Visitor Centre is at the Los Cotos pass, at km 42 of the M-604, at the upper end of the pine forest, where the high mountain of the Peñalara massif begins. Next to it is the Cotos car park, free, open 24 hours and with 250 spaces. At weekends, phone before setting out: they tell you whether there is any quota left in the massif and whether the car park is full. On Saturdays and Sundays it fills up between 9:00 and 11:00, and before 8:00 when there is snow. They do not hire out equipment or sledges.

Hours and services

According to the National Park website, the centre opens every day of the year from 8:00 to 18:00. The telephone is 918 52 08 57. It has an office-room with information and recommendations for the visit and two projection systems on the natural and cultural values of the park, an audiovisual room with a sound tour of the habitats of the El Paular valley and an aquaterrarium that supports the breeding of the midwife toad, an amphibian threatened by a disease, chytridiomycosis. The public toilets are in a separate building, one of them adapted, and the centre is accessible to people with reduced mobility. It does not organise its own activities; the park's are on its website.

The Peñalara quota

The Peñalara massif has a maximum quota of 945 visitors a day, which includes anyone going up to walk, climb, mountaineer or bivouac. When it is reached, nobody can enter until 00:00 the next day. Groups of 15 people or more need authorisation and an appointment, and must go through the centre. The car park only closes when it is full, and the road panels and the Park's social media announce it. If it is full, the centre suggests alternative routes around Cotos.

Routes from Cotos

From here start the climb to the Laguna Grande de Peñalara and the ascent of Peñalara peak, the roof of the sierra. In winter, with snow and good conditions, ski touring and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding and ice climbing are practised; bring your own equipment, because nothing is hired out in the area. There are no sledging areas inside the park.

Rules worth having clear: you must not leave the marked paths, and some are closed because of erosion; swimming or entering any lake or stream is not allowed; dogs must be on a lead and never at the bivouac, which is only permitted next to the Zabala refuge, without a tent; and you must not pick plants, mushrooms or stones.

Getting there

• By car: from the A-1, exit 69 and the M-604 via Rascafría; from the AP-6, exit 39, the M-601 to the Puerto de Navacerrada and the SG-615 to Cotos.
• By bus: the 691 from Moncloa, the 692 from Los Molinos and Cercedilla and the 819 from Rascafría, these last two only at weekends and public holidays. Details at buses from Madrid.
• By train: the C-9 is still closed for works; there is a special bus from Cercedilla to Cotos with a stop at the Puerto de Navacerrada.