The slopes that lead down to the River Narcea are home to one of the biggest and healthiest deciduous forests in Spain, providing rich, nutritious food for the brown bears that live in the vicinity.GETTY IMAGESThis Atlantic forest, situated further west than any other in Europe, is hanging on by a thread as cement and tarmac encroach on its territory. It’s still a beautiful spot though, and standing among the trees, its not hard to conjure up an image of the bandit Fendetestas making good his escape down the paths and across the Eume River as he did in Wenceslao Fernández Flórez’s novel “The Enchanted Forest.”FERDINANDO VALVERDE (GETTY Images)The upper basin of the Nálon River, in the Asturian municipality of Caso, is covered with the wild forests of Redes, where brown bear and wolves roam amid the beech, oak and chestnut trees that are also home to chamois and grouse.DAVID SANTIAGO (GETTY Images)Moncayo Mountain rises like an Atlantic island in the middle of the Mediterranean, offering shade and a splash of rich color. Thick with beech trees and surrounded by holm oaks, olive trees and vineyards, this is a mystical corner of the peninsula where many seek spiritual solace amid the foliage.DAVID SANTIAGO (GETTY Images)The Palombera pass is the crowning glory of the forests of the Saja River in the fall. The ancient woodlands hide a maze of paths traditionally used by mountain dwellers, who left their valleys to occupy the lands of Castile, retaken in the year 1,000 AD. The photo shows the waterfalls at the Pozo de la Arbencia inside Saja-Besaya Natural Park.F. J. SOBRINO (AGE FOTOSTOCK)Fall paints the landscape of the Ayllón massif between Segovia and Guadalajara, where beech trees mingle with yew trees. Against the odds, this forest has survived the hot dry Guadalajara climate as though a woodland spell is at work.JOSÉ LUIS VEGA (GETTY Images)The high valley of Hecho in Aragón is crowned with an old untouched forest of beech and firs and black pines marching along the ridges. Below is the mountain gorge at the Boca del Infierno that twists upwards to the source of the River Aragón Subordán – the point where the mountains enclose this Pyrenean treasure whose very remoteness has saved it from the axe.ANTONIO REAL (AGE FOTOSTOCK)The Cameros hills conceal within their folds a beautiful beech wood, close to the source of the River Iregua. Surrounded by semi-alpine pasture that has served nomadic cattle farmers for centuries, these beech trees account for the last native deciduous forest in the region.M. A. OTSOA DE ALDA (AGE FOTOSTOCK)The source of the Nervión River is tucked away among the leafy beech forests of Santiago that begin at the cliffs of the Salvado mountains and advance down towards the meadows of the Arrastaria valley in Alava. The forests are constantly doused in moisture by the dense mists that also feed the river and ensure that the Salto de Nervión waterfall – considered the highest in Spain – remains a spectacular sight.CESAR MANSO (GETTY Images)
