If you're looking for family walks in the Palencia Mountains, start with these three. They're waymarked trails in the Montaña Palentina Natural Park, with the park's official figures, and the regional government promotes them as family routes. All three start from villages in the municipality of Cervera de Pisuerga, so you can fit two into a weekend without changing where you stay.
The three walks at a glance
- Fossil Forest Trail: 3 km loop, 120 m of ascent, 1 hour. Starts in Verdeña.
- Giant of Valle Estrecho Trail: 4.4 km there and back, 113 m of ascent, just over an hour. Starts from the reservoir road, past Santibáñez de Resoba.
- Roblón de Estalaya Oak Trail: 4.6 km loop, 125 m of ascent, an hour and a half. Starts from a car park near Estalaya.
The park recommends all three year-round. In winter, though, check the forecast before you set off: these are mountain walks.
Fossil Forest Trail: the shortest
This is the one that works best with small children. From the car park at the entrance to Verdeña you cross the village, go down some steps and through a passageway, then follow a track into oak woodland. The goal is a sandstone face uncovered when an opencast coal mine was dug: the rock is printed with the stumps and roots of a coastal forest more than 300 million years old. You see it from a viewpoint with information panels, so there's no scrambling.
Along the way you pass three viewpoints: Peña Celada, the Forest viewpoint and the La Pernía viewpoint. Because of the steps at the start, leave the pushchair in the car and bring a baby carrier.
Giant of Valle Estrecho: a legend to keep them going
The park's leaflet pitches this one as a way into the mountains for younger walkers, and the legend helps. The only climb comes in the first twenty minutes; after that it's an almost level stroll across upland meadows at around 1,400 m, with grazing cattle depending on the season. You reach the Peñalbilla viewpoint, skirt Peña Negra and finish at the Caldacio viewpoint, looking across to Peña Redonda, where the giant is said to sleep after his daughter drugged him so she could run away. His tears, so the story goes, feed the Deshondonada spring.
You return the same way, facing Espigüete. The car park is signposted at kilometre 15.5 of the reservoir road, on the left if you're coming from Cervera.
Roblón de Estalaya: the oldest tree
Leave Cervera on the Potes road, cross La Requejada reservoir, pass Vañes and turn right: the car park is about two kilometres on. The trail crosses the end of the reservoir, climbs a small valley and enters beech and oak woodland to reach the Roblón, a sessile oak 17 m tall and 10.6 m round at the base, thought to be more than 500 years old. It has survived a lightning strike and was once marked for felling, but nobody ever cut it down. It's listed as a notable tree of Castilla y León.
What about the Tosande yew forest?
It's the best-known walk in the area, but it isn't one for small children: 10.5 km, about three and a half hours and rated moderate, with a stepped climb through beech woods. If your children are confident walkers, save it for another trip; everything you need is in our guide to the Tosande Yew Forest Trail.
Where to stay and eat
Cervera is the obvious base for these three walks. If you're travelling as a group or with other families, Casa Las Vacas is in the village itself: it's let as a whole house, with a free cot, swings, a barbecue and a heated indoor pool for guests only. Further up, in the Castillería valley, Casa Rural San Felices sleeps up to 10.
For lunch after your walk, Cervera has Restaurante Taxus at the Fuentes Carrionas campsite, with a covered, heated terrace and a grill menu, and Restaurante Peñalabra, run by the same family since 1932, with a set lunch menu.
If the weather turns, Cervera's natural park visitor centre has a permanent exhibition on the brown bear.