From the car park walk up to the gate to Penyal de Ifac.| Penyal de Ifac from
Calpe Penyal de Ifac |
| Estimated net time | 2-2½ hours |
| Difficulty | The hike up to the tunnel is very easy. After the tunnel you need to walk along some shelves, where there is some exposure. If the rock is dry there are no problems, but on wet rock you need to show some care (the route might get closed if raining). After the shelves the path is a bit cumbersome but not difficult. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (May 2009). |
| Parking | Room for many cars at trail head. |
| Start height | 32 metres |
| Vertical metres | 300 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 4.2 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
From the car park walk up to the gate to Penyal de Ifac. |
If arriving from south drive road A70 to exit 64, signed "Altea" and "Calpe", and turn right. Follow road N332 towards Calpe. 9.7 km after leaving A70 turn right, following signs for "Centro comercial", and then straight through the round-about. Follow signs for "Parce Penyal de Ifac". 3.0 km after turning right for "Centro comercial" turn right in the round-about. Stay right in the fork 300 metres later, and after another 400 metres find parking at the car park on your left hand side.
Start hiking by walking up to the formal entrance of the park. Then follow the road up to the two buildings where you find two turn stiles. Walk through the turn stiles, and follow the path up to the tunnel. After the tunnel you need to show some care on the shelves you will be following to the south-east side of the mountain. When you start turning north the path gets a bit more cumbersome, and in a couple of places you are likely to use your hands. This path will take you all the way to the summit, which is marked by a concrete cairn.
The descent follows the ascent route.
This Thursday we drove north from Alicante, with the aim to visit Penyal de Ifac. It was another very warm day, with temperatures up to 34°C, so a mid-day hike wasn't ideal. Plenty of water in the back pack is compulsory, but just as important is to have a clean T-shirt waiting in the car!
There were hundreds of people in the mountain this day, and clearly some who had never walked anything more cumbersome than their living room carpet. This made for some pretty amusing situations, with people crawling down steps less than a foot high. The young boys in our team were enjoying this "show", and I took the opportunity to remind them of the importance of physical activity to be able to enjoy and explore as many aspects of life as possible!
At the summit we managed to occupy the small area where the summit cairn is located, giving us first class views and also a bit of cooling wind. The hike back down to the car was done with a bit of running, with everyone keen on getting back to Alicante in order to jump into the pool, and followed up by ice cold drinks.