Urbión

Overview

The Picos de Urbión (Peaks of Urbion) constitute one of the most important mountainous zones of the range of Sistema Ibérico (Iberian system) that crosses from east to west the north zone of the Iberian peninsula. The very central location in this massif supposes landscape favoured of other ranges of this mountain chain as the Sierra de la Demanda at West (peaks San Lorenzo, San Millán) and range of Moncayo at East.
In these mountains the river Duero born, one of the mightiest and most important rivers of Spain, and its natural environment is very visited by the tourists specially the zone of the Laguna Negra on summer. The Laguna Negra (Black Lake) is one of the most beautiful places in the zone, and the best trailhead for the climb. Actually the mountain is in the Reserva Nacional de Urbión (Urbion's national reserve).

The easiest route is a walk-up in summer for all the people, not very hard. With snow it's a beautiful walk-up in 2/3 of the route. The last 1/3 of the route is a little more hard with slope in the snow (generally it's a route for mountaineers in winter or early in the season-spring-)

Getting There

The mountain is located at North of province of Soria in the border with La Rioja and generally the access is from this city but you have another longer route from North side approaching across Logroño.

Approach to Soria:
-From Madrid: N-II (Guadalajara) to Medinaceli. N-111 to Almazán and Soria.
-From Barcelona: N-II or A2 across Lleida/Zaragoza/Tudela/Calatayud to Medinaceli.
-From North (Pais Vasco, La Rioja): N-111 across Puerto de Piqueras.

Approach to Trailhead
From Soria take N-234 to Cidones. Turn in north direction to Vinuesa. In vinuesa take SO-630 in north direction. To entry in the bad road of the deserve turn in the signal between km 7 and 8 (indicated Laguna Negra and Ermita de Sta Inés) to the small parking.

Red Tape

Natural park. Not fees. It's a very popular place and the parking is very small; generally the people leave the car in the same road and it's a good idea to go early in the morning.

When To Climb

All the year. The best epoch is spring time (March to June) with some of snow, there are no still many people, generally only mountaineers.
In summer (July-August) is a overcrowded place with a lot of people in Laguna Negra, a lot of cars,...
In winter the road is difficult to transit for the snow in many days, but the climb is interesting.

Camping

Not allowed in the park but generally it's not necessary but the route is short.

Nearest camping:
*Vinuesa: Camping Cobijo (road to park, 2 km to Vinuesa)

Hotels in Vinuesa, Covaleda, Duruelo de la Sierra,... and a lot in Soria, the main city only to 35 km.

Mountain Conditions

Lakes

The great popularity of this natural area is due to the nearby Laguna Negra (Black lake) and others like Laguna Helada (Ice lake) or Laguna Larga (long lake). This lakes are near of the normal route to Urbion.

Another peaks

Urbion is really a massif with other peaks and ranges:

Cuerda Larga de Urbión:(North-West)
-Muñalba (2074m)
-Pico de las Tres Provincias (2049m)
-Cerro Pantorra (2044m)
-Picacho del Camperón (2093m)
-Peñas Blancas (2161m)
-Urbión (2228m)
-Risco Zurraquí­n (2105m)

Sierra de Mojón Alto:(South)
-Rasón (2070m)
-Mojón Alto (2093m)
-Tres Fuentes (1931m)

Cordal de Santa Inés: (East)
-Alto de las Tres Mojoneras (1879m)
-Santa Inés (1878m)
-Alto de las Tres cruces (1890)
-Peña Negra (2025m)
-Buey (2034m)

External Links

• Revista Ib�rica
  Laguna Negra and normal route to Urbion with pictures and hotels (text in spanish)
  
• Cañón del río Lobos
  Another interesting natural park in the south of Picos de Urbion.
  
• Junta Castilla y Leon
  official page of governement of the region with information of tourism (natural places, hotels, cities, gastronomy...). Text in English/Spanish/French
  
• Nevasport.com
  Normal route to Urbión from Laguna Negra. Text in Spanish.
  

Images

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