Puerto de Erjos to Las Portelas

Large Leaved St.John's Wort

Yesterday, I set off from a fairly cold and cloudy parking spot by an information board at Puerto de Erjos overlooking the Erjos Pools to walk the Cumbre be Bolico and Cumbre de Masca ridge to the village of Las Portelas in the El Palmar Valley.

Looking down onto Masca

The weather was cold and misty enough to cause me to put on my fleece, which doesn't happen very often but once I had entered the laurisilva forest the wind dropped and the temperature improved somewhat. 

Masca

This spring has been a very good one for flowers and although they are now a little past their best, there were still plenty of colourful blooms to add colour to the scenery on this section with plenty of yellow Large Leaved St.John's Wort and Echium Augustifolium decorating the path at the edge of the forest. 

Looking along the Cumbre de Bolico

As I reached the Cumbre de Bolico, I dropped out of the cloud and fantastic views opened up into the Masca valley far below. 

Las Portelas comes into View

I followed the ridge for some distance, stopping often to enjoy the views, which now included the El Palmar valley, where I could see my next objective, the village of Las Portelas. 

Descending to Las Portelas

Dropping off of the ridge, I soon found myself in the village and began the long climb back up onto the ridge passing the Albergue de Bolico hostel on the outer edge of the village. This looked shut but had an observation terrace with a telescope for observing the nearby mountains so I took advantage of this before continuing the long climb back onto the ridge. 

Climbing from Las Portelas

After a fairly strenuous climb I arrived back at the Cumbre de Bolico and re-traced my steps to the car after 4.75 hours of walking.