Ruta del Cares in 4x4 with guide from Caín to Poncebos

You were asking for adventure out loud and we are going to give you the perfect dose to have an unforgettable day. Join our 4x4 route through Cares and discover one of the most spectacular routes that the Picos de Europa can offer. An excursion between Caín and Poncebos that will take us the whole day and that will show us the most exuberant side of the Cares river route from our off-road vehicle.

Our day will begin at 10 in the morning. We will pick you up from Cangas de Onís or Arriondas with our vehicle and head towards the province of León through the Desfiladero de los Beyos, known for being the largest gorge in the Cantabrian Mountains, so you can get an idea of the incredible views that you will have from the car. 

We will continue through the course that follows the Sella river in reverse, knowing the salmon farm where salmon are raised and then released in the wild, or the old pass that formerly linked Asturias with the Plateau. Places of great interest that you will enjoy sitting comfortably but with that extra feeling of excitement that only off-road vehicles can give you, until reaching the Sajambre valley, one of the main ones in this area, together with the Valdeón valley, which make up the Picos de Europa Natural Park.

We will go up to the Leonese town of Soto de Valdeón to visit a mill that was formerly used to corn mill, approximately in the year 1873, to continue along the path that will take us to Vegabaño, a mountain refuge with an amazing viewpoint at a height of about 1,500 m from which we can glimpse some of the best views. Hence, we strongly recommend that you charge your phone's battery to the max so that you can take the best pictures.

We will return to the 4x4 to descend through the Senda del Arcediano, an ancient Roman road through which we will drive to Oseja de Sajambre, a charming little town at the foot of the Los Desfiladero de los Beyos where the Sella river is born to cross the Asturian province until we reach the Cantabrian Sea, and where we will make a pleasant stop to visit it among the majestic mountains that rise around it, such as the mountain passes of Pontón and Panderrueda, without a doubt, the best place to see the most extreme peaks of the Picos de Europa.

From here we will go down to the Posada de Valdeón y Caín inn having previously stopped to see up close a 17th century trap built to hunt wolves, the Chorco de los Lobos, which Today it is still a curious place that you cannot miss if you are in the area.

Around noon, around 2:00 p.m., and after an instructive talk by our guide and off-road driver about the Ruta del Cares, its greatest cultural, landscape and ethnographic curiosities, we will leave you some time to have lunch and make a route on foot at your whim, to breathe that indescribable air that inhabits this place.

At about 8:00 p.m., in the winter months it will be a little earlier, around 7:00 p.m., we will pick you up in Poncebos to reach the origins of the Ruta del Cares and continue to Arenas de Cabrales. At this point, we will head in our SUV to Cangas de Onís where you will have left your vehicle and thus end a day full of adventures,emotions and tradition in one of the greatest natural spectacles in the north of the Spain.

We recommend you come with sports clothes and shoes, and even better if they are trekking or mountain ones, water and some snacks to keep your strength under check. At all times you will be accompanied by the guide, so he will give you instructions and warn of the precautions that must be taken to live the experience in the best way.

Ready to tour the Cares in a 4x4?