2. BEGINNING A SHORT HIKE INTO THE GUADDARRAMA MOUNTAINS NORTH OF SAN LORENZO DE EL ESCORIAL
The first sight worthy a photo that was higher than the dam visited on the previous day was a look back at that dam from above it:
Just to the side, there were some strange old water tanks made of concrete (or at least concrete-lined): they were obviously no longer in use:
The view back to town was pleasant:
And the views in the trees early on were also pleasant:
Much time passes until some other views come about, like these looking at the local high point with a hikers' refuge:
We are perhaps a third of the way up, at this point.
About halfway up we meet a pleasant creek (probably not the same one I met as part of my first hike in this area several years ago, since that hike started from a different trail head):
About two-thirds of the way up, the local high point with the shelter for hikers came into view again:
Pushing on, the saddle that was my destination finally appeared:
I set my altimeter in meters to match the sign, then changed it back to feet:
But the views from this saddle were not the greatest, so I looked around to the north and saw a reservoir and some wind farms in the distance:
The view to the east showed a potentially good viewpoint down onto the city:
I walked into those woods, and found them delightful, but blocking my view:
So I came back down to the saddle and proceeded to go around this dense stand of trees surrounding a rocky outcrop:
From that next stand of trees the views were no better, but I could tell that with a tiny bit of elevation gain I would be out of those trees again with views in many directions, like toward the west which showed a nice road, but it was fenced off as part of the city's protected water catchment area.
To my surprise, the view to the north now also gave me a town to look at:
And the view to the southwest was just splendid:
There came a point where I had to say enough is enough. Here you can see where I stopped, in relation to the local high point with its shelter not too much higher off to the east:
and in terms of feet of elevation, this is where I stopped, for a total gain of just under 1,700 feet:
But I am teasing you, no pictures looking back into El Escorial! So here is the first one, the rest are on the last page of this 3-page series:
Finish the second day's hike on the next page.
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