Monte Abantos, #3 (Awaiting the Sunrise). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
You are likely in the area to visit El Escorial, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Spain’s cultural and historical highlights. This austere-yet-most-impressive monastery, palace, library, basilica, convent, royal residence, royal burial chambers, hospital, school, (etc., etc!) was built under the reign of Felipe II, who was the Spanish King when Spain’s power around the world was at it’s maximum. Yes, it is definitely a must-see.
Another thing you might want to do, though, if you are desiring a bit of exercise after all the gilded 16th and 17th century gawking, is hike up the huge granite and pine-covered mound behind El Escorial: Monte Abantos.
There is plenty online on how to find and navigate the various trail options, so I’ll let you do that research. I’ll just say that you’ll need somewhere between 1 to 6 hours of free time, depending on your fitness level, how fast you’d like to move, and which trail you choose. (Trail runners–this would be a nice 1 1/2 hour trip for you from the town of San Lorenzo!)
On this particular sunrise hike, I left San Lorenzo in the dark, by star and Venus-light, no headlamp (not recommended), with a small topo map on my iPhone, and I needed 3+45 for the round trip (maybe 9km and about 2500′ of altitude change), including photo stops and navigational errors. Caveat: I did do a fair amount of jogging on the way down.
Here are a few images of what you might see if you choose to make the granite summit by dawn’s early light…
Awaiting sunrise at the summit cross. Chillin’ at the cross, you might say, as the breeze was stiff and cold. Luckily, there are rocks and trees to hide behind. In winter, bring warm clothes, even on a good day. Here, you are looking generally east-northeast, with Madrid a bit to the right (south) of photo’s edge:
Monte Abantos, #4 (Summit Cross, View Northeast). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
As predicted by Sra. Google, the sun peered over the edge at precisely 8:39a.m. Winter days in northern latitudes are nice for sunrise photography–no need for super-early wake-ups!
This is the view looking southeast toward Madrid, about 30 miles away. Those four buildings on the left are the famous skyscrapers in the Cuatro Torres Business Area of downtown, tall even for Europe-wide standards. From left to right, you have Torre Espacio (230m/750′), Torre de Cristal (249m/817′), Torre PwC, or PriceWaterhouseCoopers (236m/774′), and Torre Cepsa (248m/814′). They were all completed by 2008 and make the Madrid skyline quite easily to identify in Spanish soap operas and films.
The lake in the foreground, and over 3000′ below, is the Valmayor Reservoir. Curious fact about the Reservoir: in the summer of 2003 a rumor began to circulate that there were crocodiles in the water. The lake was closed to water sports for a time until a thorough search, and testimony from wildlife experts, finally convinced the authorities that it was all bunk. Chalk up yet another one for the encyclopedias of urban legends:
Monte Abantos, #5 (Madrid View, Sunrise). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
As the plasmic orb o’ life, Ra, floats higher, here is a 24mm view that includes Madrid in the distance on the left and, in the forground, the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The actual palace/monastery of El Escorial is at the far right and still in shadow:
Monte Abantos, #6 (Sunburst). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
I courted Sra. Google a bit to see if I could find out anything interesting about the names on these plaques, but she was not forthcoming. Maybe you or Hercule Poirot will have better luck and I am sure there are stories there.
The translation of the words on the right are nice, however…
“When you are apart from a friend, don’t dispair; because what you love most about him[her] will become clearer in his[her] absence, as the mountain is most clear to a climber on the flatlands.” (Roughly, anyway. My translation.)
Monte Abantos, #7 In Memoriam). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
More play with two items human beans tend to worship–the sun and the cross.
I don’t particularly like how this lens (Nikkor 24-120 f/4G ED VR) renders sunbursts, but you can kind of make it work. I set f/16 in aperture priority and then took a number of shots with varying amounts of the sun’s disk obscured to vary the effect. In post, I still needed to clone out the odd reflection here and there:
Monte Abantos, #9 (Crossburst). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
There is a weather station just behind the cross at the summit–and the wind generator makes a helluva racket. But, between wind, sun, and the batteries, I’m sure there was no need for an expensive extension cord to the valley below:
Monte Abantos, #10 (The Weather Station). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
With the sun now hitting the spires of El Escorial Monastery, here is a close-up view (120mm) from the summit. The royal structure was very solidly built from granite blocks hewn and hauled from the nearby hills:
Monte Abantos, #12 (Town & Monastery). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
The summit ridge of Abantos is actually a very pleasant place for a stroll (getting there is the hard part). You can walk along a fairly even ridge with spectacular views to the south. Off to the north (left) is the famed and very controversial “Valley of the Fallen” built by Franco after the very ugly Spanish Civil War. I have no photos because I actually forget to hike over to a decent overlook in that direction–perhaps for the best, say my anti-Franco friends:
Monte Abantos, #13 (Summit). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
The view west. Could that be the Sierra de Gredos with the snow?
Monte Abantos, #15 (View West). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
Just before you gain the summit ridge, in a clearing, you’ll find this wonderful spot to stop, take a drink, and contemplate the quiet surroundings and the beating of your heart:
Monte Abantos, #17 (The Fountain). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
On the way up, in the incomplete light of early dawn, I thought this might have been a patch of snow left over from a recent storm. It is actually frozen runoff from the fountain in the previous image. Yes, it may be sunny Spain, but it definitely gets cold up here in the winter:
Monte Abantos, #18 (Iceflow). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
On the way down, in the light o’ day, I could finally see the trail markings!
Monte Abantos, #19 (Trail Marker). San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, 2019
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