El Molino Viewpoint

Step out of the car and the canyon opens straight in front of you: bare walls of red rock falling away to a valley floor dammed into reservoirs. The rock is the colour of rust, layered and cut by ravines, and the scale of it is the reason people stop.

The drive up the valley of the dams from La Aldea de San Nicolás is a long run of tight bends, and this is where the road gives you somewhere to pull in and look back at what you have just climbed through. It is a quiet spot. The sound is mostly wind and the odd car on the GC-210.

How much water sits in the reservoirs depends on the year. In a dry spell they shrink to pools, and the view is all rock.

• There are no toilets and no drinking water at the viewpoint or nearby. Bring water and plan your stops before you set out.
• With no toilets, the corners of the lay-by smell of urine and collect litter, worst in the heat. Keep to the upwind side.
• The GC-210 here is narrow, winding and two-way, with no guardrail on the drop side in places. Nervous drivers may want to skip it.
• No bus stop sits nearby, so this is a stop for people with a car.

You arrive by car on the GC-210. Coming up from La Aldea de San Nicolás, the road climbs through the valley of the dams in a long chain of bends before it reaches the viewpoint; the stretch is narrow and two-way, with the rock wall on one side and an open drop on the other.

Parking is right at the lookout: one area about 25 m away and another about 38 m away, the second on asphalt. From the car there is no walk to speak of. You step out and the view is in front of you.

No bus stop lies nearby.

Best: a clear morning or late afternoon.

Avoid: driving the GC-210 in the dark, in low cloud or in rain.

Low sun brings out the layers and colour in the red rock, while the midday glare flattens the canyon and the heat makes the lay-by smell worse. The road has an unguarded drop, so it is best driven when you can see it.