The Cheap Route

Some say its the most dangerous hike in the world, El Camino Del Rey (also known as El Caminito Del Rey) is definetely the most thrilling hike I’ve ever done.

The path was originally constructed in 1905 for workers of a hydro eletric damn set up in the cliffs of El Choro. Since then, the path has deteriorated and is now only for the adventurous. The government of Spain allocated 7 million euros for the restoration of El Camino Del Rey in 2006, however its clear that this has not been spent yet.

To get there, catch the train to a town called Alora. Alora is about 12 or 13 km away from El Choro, which is your final destination. There is a train station in El Choro, you can try catch a train directly there, but the trains do not run often. From Alora we took a taxi, I believe there is only 1 taxi, the drives name is Antonia, and if you ask at the local bar outside the Alora train station they’ll call for you. We paid 20€ for the ride, which was likely too much, but we had 5 people so we didn’t mind so much. Antonio will drop you in El Choro at a market which has a flyer for the local climbing shop which is just down the road. Arrange a rough time for Antonio to come pick you up, allow plenty of time to catch your train as he’ll probably have to drive from Alora to come get you. Head down the road, it’s pretty obvious which direction you need to go to find the trail, and you’ll find the climb shop to your right. If you already have a harness, the straps, and carabiners, you can skip this part, or go in and ask any questions you may have. If you plan on renting your harness, be aware they only have 2 for rent, and they may already be rented. You may have to buy your harness as we did, it cost about 65 euros. The shop is run by a German guy who can answer questions, since we had a group of 5 he recomended we climb Alpine style, I’m not a climber so I’m not familiar with it, but I think this is where everyone is connected by a rope to prevent any 1 person from falling. DO GET A HARNESS as no matter how confident you are in your abilities, the path is old and falling apart, and you don’t want to be the sucker who makes the next section crumble. Even the cables you latch into are questionable, so don’t fall.

Now that you have your harness, continue walking up the path with the river on your left, its about 15-25 minutes to get to the trail head. You’ll start to see things you recognize, then you’ll catch your first glimpse of the bridge and El Camino Del Rey high up on the cliff.

You may have read elsewhere you have to cross through a train track, however you don’t. The path starts high up, and has two gates preventing entrance, however the part you want to start on is down below. You’re going to be scared when you see how it starts, crossing over steal beams which are spaced at around 4 or 5 feet apart with nothing in between.

Then you’ll climb a steep cliff to get up to the path, we didn’t clip in at this point as there’s no cable, if you wanted you could because there are handles the whole way up, but the handles seem sturdy and make it a easy climb without a harness. This is the one part of the climb where we didn’t use our harnesses.

If you’re travelling with others, be sure to keep a safe distance from each other to spread your weight evenly and decrease the risk of the path breaking and increase the risk of the cable holding up in case of a fall. From here it gets easier, I don’t know if its always windy, but it was extremely windy when we were there, and it makes the missing section just before the bridge quite frightening as well. We all found that by the end of the hike we were quite comfortable with anything it had to offer, but the beginning is really scary.

The hike is not very far, maybe about 2-3 miles in total, and this includes the way back. The walk to and from El Chorro and El Camino Del Rey maybe doubles that. I’ve heard you can come back via the train tracks if you prefer, but this is mostly tunnels and that can get pretty sketchy as well if a train happens to come by while you’re in there, I’d just come back the same way you came. When you reach the end of the hike, you’ll see an old ruined house. We continued to this house, and had lunch up on the hill right by it, it was really nice, I’d recommend it.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the path, things can easily change, sections may become unnavigable or unsafe, might be a good idea to check with the climb shop beforehand

Please share your experiences or advice in the comments below