Throughout life, one travels across plains and mountain ranges, deep and shallow valleys, forging a repertoire of the most beautiful features of the territory that call to us with a deep voice, charm, and resonance.
Today I am referring to one of the most beautiful mountains in Spain, one of those forests that place us in first or second place in Europe. I don’t remember if behind Finland or Sweden, believe it or not.
And among what are the most excellent examples of outstanding forests, I would place, without a doubt, Valsaín, on horseback in the Guadarrama mountain range, between the Granja de San Ildefonso and Navacerrada: a large expanse of pinus silvestris, with a proverbial straightness and a legendary quality of wood.
For me, Valsaín has very special formulations of thought and action. An entire homogeneous forest area that has not changed in the last two centuries. It was in the 18th century when Philip V acquired the pine forest to have a large garden added to the newly built Palace: a small Versailles tailored to an initial nostalgia, more than compensated later by an environment of majestic fountains, with the movement of their figures, and which still move with the lifting and falling water systems of the 18th century.
For me, Valsaín is an example of good conservation, of a forest without excessive desire for profitability, and that keeps the attention of humid Spain alive, in the middle of a northern plateau that is largely a cereal dry land to be taken into account. Returning to Valsaín is turning the valley greener, to the nature of trees that do not know how to tell lies even in these difficult times.