Sierra Norte de Guadalajara
Mountains and rivers, sculptors of the landscape
The park extends over 116,953 hectares at the point where the Central and Iberian systems and the northeastern sector of the Tagus Basin meet.
This conjunction explains the remarkable diversity of rocks that outcrop in the park and are responsible for its unique physiognomy. Slate, quartzite and gneiss (all of them very old metamorphic rocks) predominate, forming ridges, ridges, valleys, fluvial canyons, cliffs, canyons and gullies.In the highest altitudes, glacial cirques such as Pico del Lobo and Pico Tres Provincias or Cebollera Vieja, where the remains of ancient glacial moraines are visible. But there are also limestones that have given rise to fantastic landscapes such as the enchanted city of Tamajón and gorges such as those of Retiendas and Valdepeñas de la Sierra.
In the southwestern area of the park are characteristic the extensive reddish rocks, very old deposits of poorly consolidated materials formed by quartzite pebbles embedded in clays, where gullies and ravines are frequent erosive landscapes. All this configures very different landscapes that offer great contrasts in very little space.
A mountain park
The relief of the natural park is very rugged and forms a mountainous group that includes various massifs and mountain ranges, such as Lobo-Cebollera, where the only glacial cirques of the entire region of Castilla-La Mancha, La Tornera-Centenera, Tejera Negra, Alto Rey, Ocejón, or Sierra Gorda. In total there are more than twenty peaks that exceed two thousand meters of altitude, a group that leads the Pico del Lobo, with 2,274 meters of altitude (source IGN), the highest peak of Castilla-La Mancha.
These mountains are the cradle of the three rivers that vertebrate the territory of the park: the Jarama, the Sorbe and the Bornova. Together with their many tributaries, such as the Jaramilla, Veguillas, Berbellido, Lillas, Zarzas, Sonsaz or Cristóbal rivers, they form a fluvial network characterized by the high quality of their waters and the valuable fauna and plant communities they support.
The riparian forests that flank them, such as birch and tremular forests in the upper reaches, or alder, ash, willow and poplar groves in the middle reaches, are in an excellent state of preservation. In the highest areas of the park live forests of beech, birch, rowan, yew and holly, vegetation that is typical of more northern latitudes, and that here are witnesses of colder past times. After the retreat of the glaciers, these Eurosiberian species found refuge in places with a special microclimate, reaching our days as relict forests.
A living saw
The great variety of habitats present in the Sierra Norte favors the existence of a valuable fauna. In the Natural Park, 260 vertebrate species have been inventoried, of which 195 are protected species, included in the Regional Catalog of Threatened Species of Castilla-La Mancha, and many of them are the object of specific programs for their conservation.
Birds are the most diverse group. In the crags nest the Bonelli's eagle, an endangered species, as well as other protected species such as the golden eagle, peregrine falcon, griffon vulture and red-billed chough. The forests are home to red kites, honey buzzards, short-toed eagles and goshawks, among many other species. But perhaps the most unique species is the bluethroat, which in Castilla-La Mancha only nests in the high mountain pastures and meadows of the Natural Park.
In the forests of the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara, roe deer and wild boar are abundant and inhabit various species of carnivores such as the wild cat, marten, genet or badger, although the wolf, a species catalogued as endangered in Castilla-La Mancha, stands out especially.A specific conservation program is being developed for the wolf, which is recolonizing this territory and whose objective is to achieve its stable settlement in a way that is compatible with the livestock farming activity that takes place there.
Harmonious landscape
The varied geology of the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara has conditioned the human activities that have developed on its territory: agriculture, livestock, crafts, traditional architecture, communications or the location and size of the populations, have evolved largely under the constraints imposed by the geological configuration of this territory. The latter is especially noticeable in the Sierra Norte. Villages are born from the earth and take their building materials from the terrain.
The predominant rocks mark the physiognomy of the villages. Around the Ocejón Peak we find the beautiful villages of the Black Architecture, with a predominance of slate and quartzite, such as Valverde de los Arroyos, Umbralejo, Majaelrayo or Campillo de Ranas and its districts. And at the foot of the Sierra de Alto Rey, where gneisses with high mica content abound, the villages of the Golden Architecture, such as Bustares, El Ordial, Villares de Jadraque or Hiendelaencina. These villages blend in with their surroundings and, far from distorting the landscape, they enhance it.
The territory of the Sierra Norte and livestock have gone hand in hand since ancient times. There is a close link between them that is reflected in the landscape, shaped by the grazing of livestock, mainly cattle and, to a lesser extent, sheep and goats.Scattered throughout the mountains, sometimes in remote and unlikely places, there are corrals and dry stone tainos (sheds for livestock use), shepherds' huts, fences with fences, humble slate bridges that are not confused with the landscape, it is that they are landscape.