Foz of Lumbier

The Foz of Lumbier at the gates of the Navarrese Pyrenees

Tearing apart one of the pre-Pyrenean valleys of Navarre, between the towns of Lumbier and Liédena, is the Foz de Lumbier, dug for thousands of years by the river Irati. A natural space protected for years by its narrow entrance and exit corridors that have served as a natural barrier thus preserving, almost unaltered, its privileged ecosystem, habitat for many species of animals and plants. In the Gorge of Lumbier we will be able to enjoy its exuberant vegetation going through the home of the griffon vultures, the swifts and the grajillas among others. The river, indisputable protagonist next to the vertical walls that surround it, is the ideal place for trout, gobies and chipas, always with the permission of the illustrious inhabitant that now has returned to these waters, the otter.

The route through the Foz de Lumbier with just 3.6 km starts from the car park we reached from nearby Lumbier and runs along the old route followed by the first electric train in Spain, El Irati, which was active until the end of 1955. We began the route in the recreation area next to the car park, to cross a small trench that warns us of the spectacular route that awaits us, and reach the entrance to the mouth of Foz de Lumbier. From there we will be able to contemplate part of the narrow course that follows the river. In this place a tunnel serves us to cross the rock giving us definitively entrance to the interior of the gorge. As soon as we come out of the tunnel, on our right, we will find a small backwater of the river where a peculiar pebble beach has been formed, which we can access by descending a cobbled path.

The route continues allowing us to contemplate in detail the vertical walls that surround us in search of the cliffs inhabited by the griffon vultures that surely already fly over our heads. The limestone walls seem to fall on us as we pass through the stretches in which the train's route dug into them to gain some ground at the narrow pass. The next tunnel soon appears before us not without first allowing us to contemplate the narrow exit that the river has drawn in the rock to escape from it. In the background you can sense part of the rest of the Devil's Bridge that closed this area of the Foz de Lumbier. Before crossing the tunnel that will take us to the final point of the gorge, a sinuous path offers us the possibility of descending again to the bank of the river to contemplate closely the forms that this one has created in the rock, as if of a sculptor and his chisel it was.

At our exit from the second tunnel, the greenway on which we are going continues its course towards Liédena, while on our right we will see the rugged path that takes us to the ruins of Puente del Diablo, a trail quite area and slippery. From here, if we do not follow any of these two options, we can only return by following our steps and discovering new corners or perspectives that we had previously overlooked, until we get back to the car park where we started the journey.

How to get to

We can reach Lumbier following the A-21 that joins Pamplona with Jaca, approximately 40 km from Pamplona in the direction of Jaca we will find exit 35, from here we only have to follow the NA-150 that will take us directly to Lumbier. This same road, but on the other side, also comes from Pamplona through Egües and Artieda. Another access road is the NA-178 that starts from Ezcároz towards Lumbier giving the possibility of joining Roncesvalles or the Irati Forest with the Foz de Lumbier. Once there, just at the entrance to the locality as we arrive from Pamplona by the highway, we will find the sign that indicates the detour that we must follow to our right. Shortly after crossing the Salazar River we will have to leave the road we are going along to continue to our right along an asphalt track that will take us to the car park where the route begins and where we can leave our vehicle for a cost of 2 € for cars.