La Pedriza is a geological feature of great scenic and leisure interest. It is located on the southern slopes of the Guadarrama mountain range. Access is from Manzanares el Real

Manzanares el Real

Manzanares el Real is a 7,250 inhabitant town in the northern area of the autonomous Community of Madrid. It is located at the foot of The Pedriza, a part of the Sierra de Guadarrama, and next to the embalse de Santillana ....

, a municipality northwest of the Community of Madrid (Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

). It is one of the largest granitic

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 ranges of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and holds numerous peaks, rocky cliffs, streams and meadows.

Geological forces have created a remarkable boulder field of strangely eroded granitic outcrops. Nearly a thousand rock climbing

Rock climbing

Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...

 routes of all difficulties are available to rock climbers. Hiking

Hiking

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...

 is also popular in La Pedriza, especially on weekends.

The 32 square kilometres occupied by La Pedriza lie within the Regional Park of the High River basin of Manzanares

Manzanares Park

Manzanares Park is a large, 480 Ha. park in the south of Madrid, Spain. It follows the Manzanares River, backbone of the park, for seven kilometers between the M-30 Nudo Sur and the town of Getafe....

, the largest park of the Community of Madrid. In this zone, vegetation is sparse, but there are Mediterranean shrubs like the rockrose, and alpine varieties like fabaceaes. The fauna is rich in birds of prey; the breeding colony of over 100 pairs of Griffon Vultures is the largest in the Madrid area.