Parque Nacional de Aigüestortesi Estany de Sant Maurici

Prat del Guarda 4,
The Catalan Pyrenees
Cataluña
Spain
97 362 40 36

http://www.mma.es/parques

Type: Park

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On the drive in to Espot, the base village of the Twisted Waters and Lake Sant Maurici National Park, there is a small, tempting glimpse of what lies ahead. Roughly midway up the winding road you’ll want to stop and marvel at it; an astonishingly powerful waterfall that blasts from the side of a green cliff like a gigantic fire hydrant unleashed to crash almost 100 meters (328 feet) down into the boulder-strewn river0 below. It is but the first of the park’s many thrilling spectacles, among them even greater falls, high ridges cradling cirque lakes carved by ancient glacial activity, lower meadow lakes that have silted in with time and created unique marshlands coursed by the emblematic winding streams that give the park its name and pockets of fir trees that are rarely found elsewhere on the Iberian Peninsula. Concealed within these forests are the Tengalman’s owl, the capercaillie and the black woodpecker. Nearing the higher alpine regions where the black pine yields to sheer granite and slate peaks, the ptarmigan and stoat may make an appearance and, with the snowmelt, the marmot will slink out of its caves. For the most part, though, the park’s wildlife is notoriously elusive, with the exception of the chamois, which is everywhere, and the occasional shadowy glimpse of what may be a griffon vulture or golden eagle. The main attraction here is the park’s remarkably contrasting landscape with its surfeit of water, the abode of common trout, otter, salamanders and the rarely glimpsed but deadly poisonous apse. Despite the recent development of roads and nearby resorts, the park survives as one of the wild and most secluded mountain zones in the whole of Europe. It was established in 1955 and since expanded to encompass 14,119 hectares (39,500 acres) with a buffer zone of another 26,733 hectares (74,800 acres) characterized by two distinct landscapes. In the shelter of beech, pines and silver birch, the meadows and valleys of the lower zones harbor the aigüestortes or twisted waters, often as clear as a perfect diamond or sparkling like an emerald. The higher zone, loomed over by the park’s highest peaks of Els Encantats (2,745 m/9,000 feet) and Montardo (2,833 m/9,292 feet), is marked by the profusion of almost 200 cirque lakes, the most frequented of which is the Estany de Sant Maurici, though it, in fact, is one of the few lakes on the valley floor. As vehicles are forbidden behind the two main entrance points, the best way to explore the park is on foot or on a guided Land Rover tour from the one of the park’s two visitor centers. Rain is a frequent occurrence when it isn’t snowing, so plan accordingly and do take advantage of the visitor center staff to get fully briefed before venturing into the wilds.