Cuevas del Campo

The area around the Negratín Reservoir, which is seen perfectly from Negratín Overlook, is one of the most attractive natural areas of the Granada High Plains as it offers visitors a spectacular array of sights and experiences.

The area beside the dam and the overlook has become a popular recreation destination where visitors can dine in a restaurant and enjoy the park and picnic area with its benches, tables, barbecues, camping area and a short trail that runs around the top of the hillside. There is also a privately-run nautical club where visitors can go to take part in water sports such as canoeing.

The badlands around the reservoir represent a characteristic landscape of the Granada High Plains and command the attention of those who visit this spot. The soft texture of the sediment in the area, the elevation of the surrounding terrain, and the existence of a semiarid climate with intense rainfalls has caused the formation of watercourses that carry enormous amounts of water, sediment and rock during heavy periods of rain. The sides of these waterways are soft and easily eroded, which allows water currents to carve out furrows in the land, transforming into rills and what we can describe as badlands. Terrain progressively recedes and forms very peculiar land formations, such as las chimeneas de hadas (the fairy chimneys– isolated columns of land that have resisted erosion) and the pipes (cylindrical vertical conducts formed on cliffsides).