A private visit, by reservation
They are a true rarity developed, for about 150 years , thousands of miles from their North American relatives. A rarity transformed into pure beauty . A winding road, and hardly traveled, goes into the lands of the Granada municipality of Huéscar , on the way to the beautiful town of Castril , which is still dominated by a fortress that dates back to the times of the wars between Christians and Arabs. Almost a millennium has passed since those confrontations caused by the irrepressible desire for riches and power inherent in the nature of the human being, disguised with a religious background that no one really believes.
a millennium . In that long time, dozens of generations of men and women have sweated, cried, laughed and loved on those lands where beautiful mountains, farm fields, villages of whitewashed houses, rivers and dense forested patches to create a chromatic game from which it is difficult to look away.
A group of sequoias that have been growing for 150 years in Granada
Long time yeah but not for a tree that, due to its longevity and power, seems to be made of rock, and not organic matter.
After advancing three kilometers along the road, a sign indicates a detour towards the estate (or farmhouse) of La Losa , on whose private land is located a group of redwoods that have been 150 years old growing in this northern area of Granada.
THE ORIGIN OF THE 'MARIANTONIAS', FOREST OF THE FINCA DE LA LOSA
To be able to enjoy this authentic botanical wonder, you must first request permission and arrange a guided tour.
After having made an appointment with the current people in charge of La Losa, the doors of a large and beautiful farm are opened in which a group of more than a dozen sequoias is well accompanied by a worthy retinue of other species of trees and floors. Except in summer, the air is usually cold, as the nearby peak of the sacred rises about 2,384 meters above sea level , creating a climate that does not wear out the growth and development of this tree of Californian origin.
Sequoias that grow in the wild a few hundred meters from the La Losa estate
And, how did those redwoods from California get to a municipality in Granada? Well, the popular belief is that the redwoods of La Losa and its surroundings were a gift from the British Duke of Wellington to one of the Marquises of Corvera. However, this story is in question, since it seems that, in reality, it was Rafael de Bustos Sagade, VII Marquis of Corvera , who brought the sequoia seedlings to Huéscar, being one of the first shoots of the gigantic tree that entered Europe.
Another of the curiosities that surround the sequoias of La Losa is the colloquial name that has been given to them: “ Mariantonias ”. There are not a few who defend that this derives from a distortion of the old scientific name that the English gave it, Wellingtonia.
However, the fact that the beloved mother of the VII Marquis of Corvera was called, precisely, María Antonia , has much more weight than the version related to the famous English duke.
THE MOST POWERFUL TREES IN THE WORLD
Be that as it may, and they will arrive as they arrive, the sequoias of Huéscar constitute one of the main natural attractions of the area . At first glance, they impress with their height – about 55-60 meters in the case of the tallest specimen on the farm – and robustness. It takes 6 or 7 people to hug its rough and beautiful trunk. And that they are very young and still have many years left to reach their full development.
North American redwoods live between 1,200 and 1,800 years , although there are legends that speak of sequoias that have exceeded 3,000 years of age. As for his height, they can reach 115 meters, and almost 8 meters in diameter at the base . They are, together with the African baobabs and some other select species, the true eternal giants among the trees of the world.
The caretakers of the farm are concerned that the sequoias receive the enormous amount of water they need to develop, as they often suffer from the dry seasons of the Andalusian summer. Thus, they look splendid while visitors see themselves as insignificant beings next to those evergreen coniferous Samsons.
The sequoias of La Sagra, in Granada
VISITING THE SURROUNDINGS OF THE SECUOYAS OF LA SAGRA
Despite the beauty of the sequoias, the visit to the place where they grow is usually short, being one more stop among the beautiful places found in this unknown area of Andalusia.
The slopes of the Sierra de La Sagra – Andalusia's highest peak outside the Sierra Nevada – offer great opportunities for hikers, who here can walk through dense stands of Salta pine. From the top, spectacular views over the Altiplano of Granada and Almeria and Jaén lands , being able to see, on clear days, the beaches of the Almería coast.
About 20 kilometers from the La Losa estate, the blue waters of the San Clemente Reservoir They contrast with the ocher and green tones of the land that surrounds them. It was built in 1990 on the same site where a town called San Clemente once existed. The waters that feed it come from the Guardal – a short river that flows into the flow of the Fardes to give rise to the Guadiana Menor – and it is not uncommon to find people there enjoying a bath, or practicing fishing and canoeing.
As for gastronomy, the closest culinary temple is the Collados de la Sagra restaurant, where they perfectly combine the innovation of signature cuisine with the fantastic raw material provided by the land in which it is located.
The sequoias of Huéscar, in Granada
Here, chefs Arturo Trujillo Gómez and Isabel Fernández García , give free rein to their imagination to create dishes as tasty as the migas cortijeras with fruit and meat, the leg of autochthonous lamb from Segur, the foie scrambled eggs with black truffle from La Sagra or the creamy cherry gazpacho with Parmesan and Cantabrian anchovies.
All these foods do not preserve life for as many years as that of a sequoia, but surely they brighten the slight journey that turns out to be our existence.
And suddenly you feel small