El Chorro
Written by Geoff Forster
El Chorro: We left Benarrabá one beautiful morning in late June.
We were going to visit the spectacular gorge at El Chorro.
We drove down the A369 to Ronda then took the A367 to Ardales.
Just metres before the pueblo of Ardales we took the MA444 to El Chorro. Just before El Chorro we passed this lovely Ermita. It had been converted into a house. It was for sale as was the bar next door. 
The MA444 wound through some magnificent scenery. The rock outcrops and gorges were spectacular. 
This is a railway bridge which spans a gap in the gorge. Tunnels run through the mountains. 
We drove passed a restaurant, El Pilar.
We parked by a lake and got our first view of the waterfall and another more spectacular railway bridge. 
The same view but with zoom. Very spectacular. 
Looking the other way down stream this rock dominates the opposite bank. 
The view down the gorge. 
Another spectacular railway bridge. The engineer who designed and built this railway had a lot of tunneling and bridge building to do. An impressive feat of engineering. 
A little further downstream we stopped again to look at the waterfall. 
A dam runs across the gorge. We went across the road on top of it.
There is a hydro-electric power station here.
The next few photographs show various parts of this.
Firstly the view upstream from the dam. 
There is a tower and what looks like a buried pipe up the hillside. I'm not 100% sure how all this works ... 
The view downstream from the dam. 
Across the dam we found the El Chorro railway station and a bar with some English chaps enjoying too much lager. 
It is no longer possible to walk along the "Camino del Rey" (The King's Path) A rather scary single file walkway around part of the gorge.
The area is popular with climbers although access is denied to large parts of El Chorro.
As a bird watcher this is good thing as it is a major breeding area of Golden Eagles and Griffon Vultures plus many more important rare species. Rock climbers may disagree.
Mountain biking is also very popular.
We drove back along the MA444 we stopped at the Guadalhorce reservoir. There are a number of campsites and water sports centres here. It is a lovely setting with the mountains, gorges, pine forests and reservoir. 
Next we drove to back to Ardales stopping for a look around the pretty pueblo.
Hey, some great pictures there!
My parents cousin owns a Villa in El Chorro, I’ve been twice, what an amazing place. Its definately the best stop in the whole of Spain!
You wrote ‘There is a tower and what looks like a buried pipe up the hillside. I’m not 100% sure how all this works … ‘
There are 3 or 4 dams coming from the lakes in Ardales to the north of El Chorro, and when all the levels are right they release the water which then generates power at that Hydro-electric power station (HEP).
When the dams aren’t in use (sometimes up to 7 years!) believe it or not there’s actually a reservoir up that mountain. There’s a road that leads to the top if you turn north up towards the lakes, then you turn left through a maze of weird rock formations.
Anyway, that water is pumped up the pipes to the reservoir, then flushed back down again to generate power! And it does this every day, you’ll notice if you stood gorge side of the damn the water level rises and falls about 10” during the day!
I’ve got a few photo’s from the top if your interested just email me, although they show the scenery and the villa, the damn’s out of shot (because I probably would have fallen off the edge!)
Great pics,
Ashley.