Autumn Colour: Walking Green Spain's Beech Woods

For a few weeks each autumn the Saja-Besaya woods stop being green and start being gold. The beech and oak that cover these hillsides turn through yellow, copper and rust, the light goes long and low, and the walking — already good — becomes the kind you remember for years. This is the colour angle, and it deserves its own telling rather than a footnote. The famous autumn roar in these same woods, the red deer rut, we've written about on its own, so here we'll keep to the leaves.

When does the colour actually turn?

Roughly October into early November, with the higher woods going first and the valley floor holding its green a little longer, so there's often a spell where you can walk from gold at altitude down into green by the river in the same afternoon. The exact timing is the Atlantic's business, not ours — no two autumns run to quite the same schedule, shaped by however much rain and wind the year has had, and we won't promise you a date the weather can't keep. What we can say is that if you come in October you're in the window, and if the season's running late you'll catch the tail of it into November.

Where's the colour at its best?

The beech is the star, and Cantabria has it in quantity. The woods around Bárcena Mayor — one of the oldest villages in the region, stone-built and small enough to walk end to end in minutes — turn beautifully, and the walk in through the trees is worth it for the village alone once you arrive. The Palombera pass road climbs through forest that lights up as you gain height, with views back down the valley that are hard to photograph properly because the colour is on every side at once. The river Saja paths give you gold reflected in moving water, which is a different pleasure again, quieter and closer to the ground. And the marked hill routes above Fresneda take you up through the canopy and out onto ridges where you can see the whole valley changing colour at once, one of the better rewards for a hard morning's climb. Look up from most of these ridges in autumn and there's a fair chance of a griffon vulture riding the thermals above the colour, unbothered by the season, which only adds to the sense that the whole valley is putting on a show.

What's the walking actually like in it?

Better than at any other time, for a lot of people. The air is cool and clear, the summer haze has gone, and once the leaves begin to thin the ridge views open right up in a way high summer's greenery doesn't allow. Underfoot there's leaf-fall and the smell of leaf mould; overhead, thinning branches and low sun that turns every gap in the canopy into a spotlight. The temperature is kind for climbing — you're not fighting heat on the way up — the trails are quieter than summer, and you finish the day genuinely earning what comes next: a slow-cooked dinner at the long table, the fire lit, the house wine poured, everyone a little wind-blown and pleased with themselves. Photographers in particular tend to linger over this month, chasing the low light rather than rushing the miles.

Isn't autumn also the deer rut?

It is — from about mid-September the berrea fills the woods at dawn and dusk, and it's one of Europe's great free wildlife spectacles. We've covered that in full separately, so we won't repeat it here beyond saying this: if you come for the colour, the roar comes free with it, out at the edges of the day, and the two seasons overlap more than most visitors expect. Between those sittings, the colour is the headline, and you walk straight into it from the door without needing to arrange a thing.

Coming for the colour

Autumn is mid-season and, for our money, the connoisseur's choice. The scheduled walking weeks are run with the walking specialists Walkwise and booked through Spice Escapes (ATOL 9046), who've run hosted group holidays for over forty-five years — no membership needed, you just book the week. Come alone or as a couple: there's no forced single supplement, with twin-share matched to a same-sex room-mate at no extra charge, or a room of your own for a clearly-priced supplement. Or bring your own party and take the whole catered house while the woods are turning, with half board looking after everyone from breakfast to the last glass of the evening.

Want to walk the gold? Tell us your dates and we'll be honest about where the season's likely to be — get in touch, or see the autumn weeks Spice runs across Green Spain and beyond →.