Hidden high in the Pyrenees is a glacier-carved masterpiece of sheer cliffs, sparkling cascades, and elegantly geometric rock forms. The Ordesa Valley is nestled high in the Aragonese Pyrenees, the central section of the mountain chain that separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe. Although it is considered today to be one of the most beautiful spots in Spain, it was not discovered until 1820, when a Frenchman exploring the heights of Monte Perdido first noticed the great glacier-carved trench extending off to the west. But the valley was so inaccessible that nearly a century passed before it was mapped in detail.
Since 1918, however, the entire valley has been protected in Ordesa National Park. About 7 miles (11 kilometers) long, it is flanked on both sides by sheer limestone cliffs. Elegantly sculpted rock forms, dense forests, meadows, waterfalls, wildflowers, and rare mountain wildlife all contribute to the park’s scenic splendor. No longer isolated and unknown, the valley is often described as “the paradise of the Pyrenees?’
Like France’s famed Cirque de Gavamie on the other side of the high ridge that forms the international border to the north of the park, the Ordesa Valley is a fine example of glacier-carved scenery. Where the Rio Arazas now tumbles across waterfalls along the length of the valley, rivers of ice once ground slowly westward.
These glaciers originated on the southwestern flanks of the mountain group known as Las Tres Sorores (“The Three Sisters”). The central peak in the group and the highest in the area is Monte Perdido, at 11,007 feet (3,355 meters). Plucking out the bedrock, the glaciers hollowed out the big basinlike amphitheater, or cirque, known as the Circo de Soaso, that hems in the head of the valley. Then, as they proceeded westward, the glaciers deepened the valley floor and steepened its walls, carving the U-shaped profile that is characteristic of glacial valleys.
Today waterfalls plunge down the walls of the Circo de Soaso, including one known as La Cola de Caballo (“The Horse’s Tail”). Merging on the floor of the cirque, the streams form the Rio Arazas, which flows west through the heart of the valley. In places its course is interrupted by steplike outcrops of limestone that result in picturesque cascades. Steep lines of cliffs rise to the north and south, backed by fortresslike mountain bastions. All along the way, deciduous forests in the valley give way to coniferous forests on higher slopes, which are replaced in turn by mountain meadows filled with rhododendrons and wildflowers.
The Arazas’s brief journey ends at the mouth of the valley, where it flows into the southbound Rio Ara. It is there that two great stone ramparts, the cliffs of Mondarruego and Dudscaro, rise to form the majestic natural gateway to the Ordesa Valley. Sarah has walked the Camino twice across Spain.