#4 GR-11 SENDA PIRENAICA: Elizondo-puerto de Urkiaga | NAVARRA

We'll leave the Baztán Valley behind to encounter some of the most important beech forests in the Navarrese Pyrenees, in the Quinto Real area. We'll gain altitude, surpassing 1,000 meters for the first time near Peña del Alba and the Urkiaga Pass. This is an easy stage that traverses areas of extensive mixed forests of oak and beech, as well as pastureland in the higher elevations, where livestock, especially cows and horses, are abundant. We'll pass by several mountain huts and hunting lodges, where it's possible to replenish our water supplies. This stage ends at the Urkiaga Pass, but there's nowhere suitable to spend the night, unless you're willing to experience sleeping inside one of the bunkers of the P Line, built by the Francoist dictatorship in the mid-1940s. The best option is to stay at Arrobi Borda, a wonderful rural hotel nestled in the forest, just down the road that connects the Urkiaga pass to the town of Eugi. Contact them to see if they can pick you up at the pass (they offered this service to us in November 2021). Another option would be to extend the stage to Sorogain and its hostel, where accommodation is also available. Contact them for more details. Stage completed in June 2022.