Saní Cliffs loop from Aiguafreda

We left the village of Aiguafreda after finding a fresh baguette to compliment our trail rations, and headed straight up for a frontal assault on the first promontory of Saní, taking the steep trails between the switchback roads. Near the top is a beautiful ermita ruin, covered in vines. Once we got up to the top of the shelf we hunted around a bit for an old track outlines by our trail map, and found that downed trees and overgrowth have taken some toll on the trail since our map was made in 2014. We did find several of the old archeological sites, old ruined masías, an excavated tomb of Casanova de Serrat, amazing first views of the cliffs, and finally took a break from the bushwhacking to follow the parallel access road for a bit. A nice trail soon branches off to follow the top of the cliffs for several kilometers, occasionally catching the road again when the way is impassable. The rest of our high-road walk was really enjoyable, and we only saw 4 people all afternoon.

We headed down into the ravine before meeting the road that continues to El Brull, scrambling down a washout to catch the trail below us for the walk back, underneath the highest cliffs, on the not-so-low-road. Parts of this forest trail are very narrow, and the sure-footed will be fine but don’t misstep or you’ll be sliding down the steep bank. Watch for washouts and loose stone. But this trail is so secluded under the tumbledown cliffs, it’s like we were the first people to walk there yet this year. And yet it is also amazing see that this remote area was completely terraced at some point, with rustic rock walls hiding in the undergrowth at each 2-meter gain in elevation. Thanks to them, the path is mostly flat, if flanked on both sides by tumbled stone and very steep banks.

We passed the Font de Saní and the Saní ruins, before joining back up to a well-kept access road. The rest of the way back was very easy if you like hiking on gravel, but the last descent back into Aiguafreda was a narrow forest track again, and was a strong reminder of how much elevation we’d had all afternoon.

We started from a cafe at 12 noon and reached the train platform exactly at 18:00 for our train back to Barcelona. A great trip we will look forward to doing again.