Puerto de las Palomas (Grazalema)

The signature pass of Cadiz’s white villages, a hairpin ladder to 1,189 m.

The Puerto de las Palomas, the Pass of the Doves, is the finest road in the white-village country of Cadiz, climbing a stacked ladder of hairpins off Zahara de la Sierra above its turquoise reservoir to a 1,189 m mirador inside the Sierra de Grazalema natural park. This is the wettest corner of Spain, which keeps the sierra green and the upper bends damp and slow to dry, and it is thick with griffon vultures, one of Europe’s largest colonies riding the thermals right over the road. The drop into Grazalema on the far side is one of Andalusia’s prettiest arrivals. Watch for snow in the depths of winter and for the vultures and livestock at the top.