Western Pyrenees, 4x4 trails?

Hi all.

I wonder whether anyone can help with some advice on the Pyrenees, please?

I am thinking of taking my boys on a 4x4 camping trip in the summer in a desperate attempt to pry them away from their iPads... and see whether their eyes will still focus on things more than a metre away.

So it has to be a 4x4 rather than a bike. I'd take the ferry to Bilbao/Santander, then be looking for decent trails at that end of the mountain range, with camping each evening.

There seem to be plenty of well documented trails closer to Andorra, but in a bid to keep this fun I want to minimise the driving on roads and get onto trails asap.

So... I guess the question is, does anyone know whether there are decent trails at the western end?

I'll head into Stanfords map shop (no imposition, maps=porn!) to grab some maps. I've seen great map advice in other threads, but is there a map range that most clearly shows trails / unmade roads?

Any advice very gratefully accepted!

The other Paul g

These guys will have all the info:
http://pyreneesmotorcycletours.com

Perhaps take a look at the Wikiloc website where people post GPS tracks for all sorts of activities. I used it for my Pyrenees biking trips but also ski-touring, cycling etc

Thanks I will look at both of those.

It varies considerable from region to region, heading west to east:

The Basque Country has lots of accessible trails in general but despite the Pyrenees there being more like foothills they are vertiginous and trails tend to only go into dead ends.

Navarre has lots of trails but the rules there are very restrictive in that most of the territory is nature reserve and local authorities often apply their own restrictions.

Aragon is fairly straightforward rules wise but in what you'd call the 'high' Pyrenees almost all of the area is national park with a) no legal access and b) there aren't many trails anyway!

Catalonia has the most open access rules wise and also has useable maps at 1:50 000 scale - similar to our OS maps - from the wonderful ICC - you'll find that Stanfords are more expensive and often don't have anything in stock.

The best trails are to be found in what are called the 'Pre-Pyrenees' which run parallel with the main ranges from about the Navarre-Aragon frontier eastwards all the way to the coast - that's where most of the French 'Vibractions' road books series are based.

The other regions don't produce print maps at all as such but do sponsor walking maps of various scales, which cover most of the Pyrenees albeit in areas that then to have the restrictions - Editorial Alpina is probably the most comprehensive. Otherwise you have to download and print your own from the Spanish national cartographic institute. This is horrendously expensive as I do this for my HISS events in Aragon! There are a few print series, the 1: 25 000 military maps, but these are only about A3 size and cover just 15 x 10 kms so you need dozens ...

There best posters on Wikiloc are Spanish and the way to find their trails is to search for place names spell exactly right. Take care of suspiciously long trails as these are often pipe dreams, try to analyse the comments on the trails, looking especially for vague or evasive answers to other user's questions ...

If you get the the Michelin 'Zoom' series these cover both sides and extend wall away form the 'Alpine' areas and are useful for high level planning, marking any trails you find on paper, etc. in fact lots of trails appear on these maps. Note that on the French side campings aren't marked - there are so many!

Regs

Simon

Simon- a huge thank you for taking the time to document that, it's incredibly helpful and will help me to plan this properly.

Brill.

Paul G

A pleasure - I take my Estrella Damm ice cold at Camping Collegats near La Pobla de Segur ...


Regs

Simon

PS your boys may like to know that there's a non-alcoholic version too ...