Circular route through the icons of La Garrotxa

La Garrotxa is one of the Catalan regions with the most spectacular and unique landscapes in the entire State, we would dare to say. And the fact is that apart from being practically all of it a natural park, few places in the world have such a unique natural diversity: volcanoes, beech forests, gorgas,...

The following route will take us to discover the three jewels in the crown of La Garrtoxa: La Fageda de Jordà, the Santa Margarida volcano and the Cruscat volcano, on a circular route.

• Difficulty: medium
• Distance: approximately 12 kilometers
• Time: Between 4 and 4 hours and a half
• Elevation: 199 meters

Variants: Although the route always follows the same path, you can choose to leave from the Can Serra Area to head South or through the Santa Margarida Area.

We will start our route leaving the Can Serra area, where we can park the car without problems. From there, we will head south and immediately cross the road to go down some stairs that will take us directly to the Fageda d'en Jordà, one of the best-known forests in all of Catalonia, in part thanks to its exceptional characteristics: first, because it grows low altitude, something that is not common in this type of forest, and second, because it is located on a lava flow from the Croscat volcano. Well, it should be said that perhaps it is also well known thanks to the fact that the famous Catalan poet Joan Maragall dedicated a beautiful poem to it. Once inside the Fageda, we come across a monolith in memory of the poet and continue through the forest.

Leaving La Fageda, the path climbs towards the pass of Can Batlle and Sant Miquel de Sacot, a church with a Romanesque plan dating from the 11th century, where you can take the opportunity to make a stop and thus take a better look at it. From there, the route continues down to the Sacot plain and the Bassols pass, from where we will access the Santa Margarida volcano from the southwest until descending to the crater, which is characterized by its large circular diameter with a hermitage in the middle that is Who gives the volcano its name?

Going down the volcano, which is covered by oak forests, we will pass in front of the Font de Collelldamunt and continue straight on until we reach the Santa Margarida area, where we will cross the G-154 road and continue on foot until we can see the Croscat volcano. It will be easy for you to identify, since its most characteristic feature is the impressive slit that cuts it from top to bottom as a result of the extraction of volcanic materials and clay that it suffered for years.

We will skirt the volcano in such a way that it remains on the left all the way, on the north side, until we find the Can Serra car park again.

Text and images: Turisme Garrotxa

Text adaptation: femturisme.cat