el 11 de febrero - El senderismo! (hiking)

This weekend has been an exploration of Granada. On Friday, I went with my study abroad group on a 4 hour easy hike around La Dehesa de Generalife, or the public park ground above the Alhambra’s Generalife (the official and royal gardens of the palace). A neat little fact is that this park area was declared a public park by Francisco Franco, the ever so beloved late dictator of España, and if you hike enough of the park you can find a much desecrated memorial to this deed.

After climbing the exhausting hill up to the Alhambra, which is a hike in and of itself, we climbed just a bit higher to access the park. Within seconds of leaving the parking lot behind, a refreshing scent of tangy pine revealed itself to my pleasantly surprised nostrils. On the hill where the park lies, are trees and grass everywhere with an overwhelming sense of escape and simplicity (even though the park isn’t even outside the city limits!)

As we snaked around this small mountain, equally beautiful views were discovered. And if one is an avid hiker, la Dehesa offers a thousand different snaking trails of varying difficulties – a build your own hike, if you will. And at the top are fields of yellow flowers, row after row of olive trees, and a stunning view of the softly white snowy-peaked Sierra Nevadas.

Near this fairytale-like lookout we picnicked and imagined siesta-ing the afternoon away.