Hike @ San Ildefonso

From Segovia, we drove just a short way south, closer to Sierra de Guadarrama at San Ildefonso. In Austria we have nougat sweets called Ildefonso, so this name sounds mouth watering. But San Ildefonso is known for La Granja – the summer residence of the Spanish Kings.

As you can see, we were not in the mood for sightseeing. We had spotted a waterfall from our parking which looked very enticing, so we decided to just head in this direction.
We first took a path which led through pastures with oak trees, but soon it turned out that it made a big circle and after one hour we were back in town. On the way, we had met helpful people which indicated us how to find the right path. If you want to go there, I will give you the details at the bottom.
First we followed the little river upstream through a light forest. Still not all trees had their foliage. The path went more and more uphill until we finally reached the waterfall. We came at the right time of the year as there was a lot of water coming down. In reality, the waterfall was much more impressive than on the pictures we had seen.
This is the only picture we managed, which shows that the water comes down from very high up, streaming over flat rocks for 100 metres in 2 following sections. It is called El Chorro Grande and was really impressive.

From a little further up we had great views over San Ildefonso, the La Granja Palace and to Segovia in the back. What a beautiful hike! In the woods next to the waterfall we even found wild daffodils!!

Our parking for the night in San Ildefonso: 40.904492, -4.008579
From here you walk in direction of the waterfall, leaving the factory on your left! and up a stream on Paseo St. Isabel, past the Plaza de Toros. When the road crosses the river you follow the road which is now called Camino del Chorro until you reach a gate into the woods with no sign. (40.900356, -3.994485) Through this gate you just follow the path upstream and it leads you to the waterfall!
Flower of the day 🙂

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