The municipality of Cabanes is one of the most powerful natural environments in the Valencian Community.
Nestled between the Nature Parks of “Prat Cabanes-Torreblanca” and the “Desierto de Las Palmas”, the visitor finds many unique spaces for hiking or cycling. The island group and Nature Reserve “Islas Columbretes” is also a unique and especially fragile ecosystem.
It is the main wetland of the province of Castellón and one of the least disturbed wetlands of the Valencian Community. The Visitor Interpretation and Information Center, located at the Torre La Sal Aquaculture Institute in La Ribera, offers complete information on the area’s habitat as well as a circular route, where you can walk around the Park and along the shore. The walking route allows visitors to discover the diversity of the landscape of Cabanes, unique in the province of Castellón.
It hides remote corners only accessible on foot. In this Nature Park there are several routes and paths that run along the territory of Cabanes, such as the route to Bartolo through the Crests; the route to Miravet Castle; the Bartolo-Les Santes route or the circular route to the hermitage of Les Santes. Taking any of them is a unique opportunity to know the variety of native flora and fauna of the area, the most varied in Europe, as well as places of extraordinary natural wealth.
Near the coast of Castellón, 28 miles from Oropesa, emerges a little island group, in old times called Snake Islands, now Columbretes, a small archipelago of 19 hectares, of volcanic origin halfway between the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. Due to its isolation and excellent state of conservation it houses several scarce animal and plant species, rarely seen in the rest of the Mediterranean. There are four groups of islets, L’Illa Grossa, where the lighthouse of Columbretes is located and also the only inhabited one, the Ferrera, the Foradada and the Carallot. The sea bed and the waters are characterized by their extraordinary beauty, richness and degree of conservation, for their unusual clarity of the water, they are known as a paradise for divers.
Raised 80m above the sea floor, the Columbretes represent the best example of volcanism in our country, easily appreciated both for the materials that form them, and for their peculiar appearance.
They are the most unique archipelago of the Valencian Community and a small island group that is of great ecological interest in the Mediterranean.
Desierto de Las Palmas 2