Padre Ferrer, Circular de la Atalaya de Padul Trail- PR-A 376

The Padre Ferrer, Circular de la Atalaya de Padul Trail - PR-A 376 starts in Parque de la Estación de Padul. We cross the town passing by the Casa Grande, a Baroque palace from 1613 which is the most emblematic building in Padul.

We take the Calle Vergel y Nieves as far as the old N-323 highway which we cross very carefully. Once the route has passed through the town, we find the starting point information panel. From here the signposts will lead us to the Vereda de los Gudaris.

We will follow the path in a clockwise direction, so at the fork we follow the arrow to the left. The route coincides with the border of the Sierra Nevada Nature Reserve and proceeds under the shade of the pine trees of Cerro de Manar, along a good path with nice views.

After crossing several ravines over well- preserved dykes, about 2,600 m from the starting point, we start a 230 m zigzag climb. We have arrived at the Cañada de la Cruz de la Atalaya. On arriving at the area where the pine trees have thinned out you should make a sharp right turn where you will see it signalled on a milestone.

We start the ascent of a fire-break which takes us to the Cruz de la Atalaya (1,240 m). The views are spectacular, we can see the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the Sierra de Albuñuelas, Tejeda and Almijara; the Lecrín Valley and the wetlands of the Laguna de Padul, the region of Temple and even Granada with the El Albaicín and the the Alhambra.

The Cross is located on the stone blocks of the old Watchtower from the Nasrid era, whose function was to control the area, both goods and troop movements between Granada and the Alpujarra and the Granada coast, hence the name "Manar" (lighthouse in Arabic)

About a hundred metres further down you'll find the lookout point of Padre Ferrer, a Jesuit priest, mountaineer and naturalist. A monolith is evidence of the admiration of mountaineers for this personality who is an honorary citizen of the Padul, a great expert and writer on the Penibaetic massif, with over 30 publications. For this reason the PR-A-376 , known as the Atalaya Circular Trail, bears his name in order to immortalise his work and lifetime's achievement in promoting the Sierra Nevada.

We descend along the Vereda de los Gudaris path, a well-maintained track with spectacular views over Padul. This path takes its name from the Basque soldiers who built it with pick and shovel during the fourteen months they were imprisoned in the Casa Grande de Padul by the Nationalist faction in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

We continue the descent for about 1,800 metres until we reach the lookout point next to the quarries of the Millón Cuarenta y Ocho. 660 m from this lookout point we return to the initial fork in the path where the circular part of the trail comes to a close. All we have left is to continue the return journey as far as the Parque de la Estación where the trail ends.