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Fuente Agria

Portugos / Alpujarra / Parque Nacional de Sierra Nevada, Granada, Spain

About Fuente Agria

Rating: 1
Difficulty: 1
Hiking Distance: almost roadside
Suggested Time: 15 minutes
Date first visited: 2015-05-27
Date last visited: 2015-05-27
Waterfall Latitude: 36.94063
Waterfall Longitude: -3.30673
Directions: Get to the waterfall
Vicinity: Find nearby waterfalls
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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

The Fuente Agria was really our waterfalling excuse to talk about the beautiful city of Granada and Las Alpujarras.

Las Alpujarras were white towns clingong to the Sierra Nevada range of Southern Spain, which themselves were said to be the highest mountains in the country.

Las_Alpujarras_052_05272015 - Fuente Agria
Fuente Agria

Indeed, these mountains were the very ones that backed the famous view at the Mirador San Nicolás, which was one of the best spots to see the Alhambra from the Albayzin District in the city of Granada.

In any case, this small waterfall was modestly-sized (probably on the order of 5m), but it provided a bit of peace and quiet as well as some relative seclusion on the morning of our visit.

We found that visiting the Fuente Agria Waterfall was quite easy.

From the church just to the east of the Alpujarran town of Pórtugos (see directions below), we then crossed the road and followed a sign saying “El Chorrerón”, which went past a picnic area behind a roadside building.

Granada_396_05272015 - The mountains backing the Alhambra as seen from the Mirador San Nicolas were the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Spain, where Las Alpujarras (and the Fuente Agria) reside
The mountains backing the Alhambra as seen from the Mirador San Nicolas were the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Spain, where Las Alpujarras (and the Fuente Agria) reside

Then, we descended a short series of steps leading to a dripping fern-fringed cove containing the Fuente Agria.

This would be the end of the walk, but it was so lush and peaceful down here that we lingered for a while.

The stream seemed to be very mineral rich.

So the stream bed appeared to have a reddish appearance, which you can see in the photo at the top of this page.

Las_Alpujarras_013_05262015 - Traversing this picnic area on the way down to the Fuente Agria
Traversing this picnic area on the way down to the Fuente Agria

This characteristic would continue further downstream where the reddish stream would weave its way between the lush greenery of this spot.

Speaking of the greenery, it seemed like this area had the right combination of sufficient precipitation, shade, and the stream of water to sustain this habitat.

It even seemed healthy enough for us to hear birds singing during our visit.

Indeed, this seemed like a slice of Eden before we headed back up to the car to continue driving the curvy roads of Las Alpujarras.

Las_Alpujarras_049_05272015 - Descending into the lush Eden-like Fuente Agria
Descending into the lush Eden-like Fuente Agria

Overall, we spent about 35 minutes away from the car.

However, this could easily be as short of a visit as you want or as long of a visit as desired depending on how much you linger.

Authorities

The Fuente Agria Waterfall resides near the town of Pórtugos in the Granada Province of Spain. It may be administered by the Parque Nacional de Sierra Nevada. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you may want to visit this website.

Las_Alpujarras_002_05262015 - This was the church just to the east of Pórtugos where we parked the car and checked out the Fuente Agria
Las_Alpujarras_005_05262015 - This as one of the spur paths leading down to this dead-end where we caught a glimpse of the mineral-rich property of the stream feeding the Fuente Agria, which was further downstream from here
Las_Alpujarras_010_05262015 - Following the El Chorrerón sign, which had us cross this picnic area
Las_Alpujarras_026_05262015 - Julie and Tahia approaching the Fuente Agria to get a closer look at El Chorrerón
Las_Alpujarras_020_05262015 - Looking downstream from the tiny falls of Fuente Agria (I think is called El Chorrerón), which revealed the reddish stream bed as well as the continuation of the lush vegetation flanking the stream providing quite a contrast between the red and green
Las_Alpujarras_031_05262015 - Another look at the Fuente Agria, where we could see there was a water channel moving the stream alongside (instead of undercutting) the flat stone surface here
Las_Alpujarras_054_05272015 - Another focused look at El Chorrerón inside the Fuente Agria area


To reach the Fuente Agria from the city of Granada, we drove south along the A-44 (Autovía de Sierra Nevada) in the direction of Motril for roughly 32km south of the GR-30 and A-44 interchange.

Then, we left the A-44 to take the A-348 for a twisty 16km to the town of Gonzalez Robles.

From there, we kept left and took the even twistier A-4132 for roughly 23km passing through the town of Pórtugos until we encountered a white church at a bend in the road just east of town.

Las_Alpujarras_011_05262015 - Parking by the church across the street from the Fuente Agria near Pórtugos
Parking by the church across the street from the Fuente Agria near Pórtugos

There was a small area for parking near the church, which we took advantage of during our visit.

Overall, this drive took us between 90 minutes and 2 hours (with gas and food as well as mirador stops along the way).

Given the narrow and twisty nature of the roads in the Sierra Nevada, I definitely had to exercise patience as well as caution in addition to fighting road fatigue to be safe.

There are typically large vehicles and slow drivers as well as large vehicles going in the opposite direction along this route.

To give you some context, Granada was 126km (90 minutes drive) northeast of Málaga, 172km (2.5 hours drive) southeast of Córdoba, 250km (2.5 hours drive) east of Sevilla, and 420km (4 hours drive) south of Madrid.

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Upstream to downstream sweep of the lush cove containing the spring as well as some dripping moss and red rocks

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Tagged with: portugos, sierra nevada, alpujarra, alpujarras, granada, spain, waterfall, andalucia, andalusia



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Johnny Cheng

About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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