Autumn in the Lobos River Canyon

One of the natural environments, whose magical beauty is a true magnet, arranged by Nature to inevitably seduce the senses and highly recommended, moreover, to visit, feel and value, at least once in a lifetime, It is none other than the enigmatic Lobos River Canyon.

This formidable natural depression, which extends, like the backbone of a lost world, along those spectacular twenty-five kilometers, included, between those two Numantine communities of Old Castile, such as Soria and Burgos, always constitutes the prelude to a big adventure.

Superb, spectacular, genuine and deliciously mysterious at any time of the year, the visit, however, if it takes place in the fall, necessarily tends to become an unforgettable experience, where the dazzled spectator will tend to consider, as dressed in a special magic, some trails that are lost between monumental cliffs and gorges, carved for millennia, by that metaphorical artist, which is erosion and thick groves, which seen at other times of the year, such as the approaching winter, can make you feel restless and even, going further still, intimidation by its singular roundness.

Perhaps, from an eminently psychological point of view, therein lies a good part of the superstitious reason why the Muslim armies, in that distant medieval era in which they freely dominated much of the badly wounded Visigoth Spain , they never penetrated its interior and did, on the contrary, make extensive detours to avoid it, leaving behind the sources where the Ucero River is born, ascending long slopes, until reaching flat land again in the extensive pine forests that make up the environment of what , at present, is known as the Mirador de la Galiana.

Ideal place, at that time, for all kinds of ambushes and with enough potential to increase, even more if possible, the superstitious medieval mentality, with all kinds of myths and legends, it is not surprising that in its multifaceted interior , installed, at the end of the twelfth century, one of the orders of chivalry, whose media legend has caused real rivers of ink to flow and still, after seven centuries of its official disappearance, still continues to generate unusual interest: the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon; that is, the Order of the Knights Templar.

Nothing is known for sure about what they did, once installed in the depths of this Lobos River Canyon, next to the enormous mouth of a colossal cavern, inside which enough signs of antediluvian inhabitation were discovered, except that the discovery of a certain document from the 12th century, recently found in the diocesan archives of El Burgo de Osma, indicates that before them, the place was occupied by other knights no less mysterious and certainly far removed from their place of influence: the Order of Roncesvalles.

What seems to be clear, after all, is that these, for whatever reasons - as long as it is shown that the reference document is authentic and in fact, it is recorded as such - they gave way to the Templars and that these, once installed, were in charge of pouring out many of the cursed legends that circulate in the area -for example, that of the cursed town of Valdecea, in which all its inhabitants died poisoned, a legend that is usually quite common in many of the places where Templar settlements are located - with the sole objective that no one bothered them in the unknown activities they were carrying out.

In fact, one of the places that arouses the most enthusiasm, among the innumerable visitors, is precisely the old Romanesque church from the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century -the first advances of an architectural style can already be seen inside. avant-garde at the time, as was the Gothic- which is located in that small crossbow curve, saved by an ancient wooden bridge -as Antonio Machado would say- that forms the Lobos River at the height of the church and the Great Cave, where Curiously, the figure, considered to be very miraculous, of the Virgen de la Salud (Virgin of the Health) is still venerated: a figure that was originally an enigmatic Black Madonna, whose original is rumored to have been sold by the parish priest himself, at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Leaving this topic here, which, in fact, constitutes a succulent esoteric-cultural attraction, which does not go unnoticed, at all, the environment of this natural park, seen with the attractive colors of autumn, not only gratifies the sight of a visitor, who feels -metaphorically and comparatively speaking- like a true Robinson Crusoe, discovering the details of the mysterious island on which he finds himself, but also allows the spirit -as Ananda Coomaraswany would say- to be influenced in the noble operation of transmuting , in the athanor, which, metaphorically and comparatively speaking, is his consciousness, Nature in Art.

Because the numerous families of poplars, willows, hazelnuts, holm oaks, oaks and birches that live inside contribute to this, with the beauty of the last rattles that gives them that peculiar blood color, in some cases and in others, possibly the most, that simile of the disease that affected painters, such as Van Gogh, called xanthopsia, which will captivate your fascination, voluntarily allowing your sight to be lost by the fascinating intensity of the ochres and yellows.

All this, seasoned by the fragrant plants and thorns, typical of the mountains, such as lavender, thyme or sage, and the metaphysical beauty of aquatic plants, such as sequins and water lilies.

In short: autumn in the Lobos River Canyon or how to get carried away by the magic of the senses.

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