The Sierra Nevada mountain range is a short 1 hour car drive from Granada. With temperatures peaking at 40⁰ deg C in Granada, its hard to believe that one can drive for an hour, and find outdoor snow. But its true.

Now the ski resort at Estacion De Esqui Sierra was closed in July (it is open only from December to April), but there is hiking available for those so inclined. We drove up to the "youth hostel" (where they were stopping automobiles) and then took a bus up close to the peak. Hiking is required for the final journey to the peak, but given it wasn't a perfectly clear day, and given our time was limited, we elected not to climb all the way up.

Here is a view of the main ski resort village. I assume in the peak season (Jan-Feb) that one can ski down to the village?


Here is a view of what appears to be the "mid-station".


This monument is around 70 feet high.


This old observatory (built around 1900) has clearly seen better days. Today its merely an interesting landmark.

We had to stop a few times to let the mountain goats pass.

Click on the above image for a higher resolution view.
I did not use "software" to optimse the higher resolution image, but I did use "Linux gimp" software to optimise the contrast and colours in the lower resolution image. The difference between the "processed" and "not processed" images is quite clear. I still am unfamiliar with "gimp", so I suspect I could have done a better job with Adobe Photoshop software.

On the way back to Granada, we stopped a few times and admired the view of the river, and the dam. Clearly irrigation is important in this part of the world, and I assume this dam was built for that purpose.