Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park

Ordesa is Spain's Pyrenean masterpiece: a glacial trench of tiered limestone walls, hanging beech woods and waterfalls stacked one above another, declared a national park in 1918 - among the country's first - and folded since 1997 into the UNESCO Pyrenees-Mont Perdu listing shared with France. Monte Perdido, the 'Lost Mountain', crowns the massif at 3,355 metres, one of Europe's great limestone summits, while the classic valley walk runs the canyon floor to the Cola de Caballo, the horsetail waterfall at the head of the cirque - a long but gentle day that ranks with Europe's finest. Bolder legs take the Faja de Pelay ledge path along the canyon wall, and the park's other faces - the slot-like Anisclo canyon, the Escuain gorge, the Pineta valley - spread the drama. Bearded vultures, the bone-breaking lammergeiers, patrol the updrafts overhead.

What you actually see

• The Ordesa valley walk - canyon floor to the Cola de Caballo falls.
• Monte Perdido - the 3,355-metre limestone crown above the cirques.
• The Faja de Pelay - the airy ledge path along the canyon wall.
• The lammergeiers - bearded vultures riding the Pyrenean thermals.

When to go

June to early October is the walking window; autumn turns the beech woods to copper and is the connoisseur's season. Snow closes the high routes well into early summer, and the waterfalls thunder loudest with June meltwater.

Honest expectations

In peak season private cars are barred from the valley head - the Torla shuttle bus is mandatory and queues early. The classic walk to the falls is 17-plus kilometres round trip; gentle gradients, but a real day out with mountain weather to respect. Accommodation in Torla books out for summer and autumn weekends.

Nearby

Torla-Ordesa village, the Anisclo canyon road and France's Gavarnie cirque over the frontier.