Navarra: from the Pyrenees to the desert in 150 km
Irati Forest and the northern beech woods
The Irati Forest covers 17,195 hectares of beech-and-fir woodland at the headwaters of the River Irati, between the Larrau and Orión passes. It is the second-largest beech forest in Europe, behind only the Black Forest. In autumn, rutting red deer can be heard from the lookout points above Orbaizeta — a village that still holds the ruins of the Royal Arms Factory (1784), an ironworks fuelled by charcoal from these same woods.
Bardenas Reales: steppe, clay, and erosion
One hundred and fifty kilometres south of Irati, the Bardenas Reales is a 42,000-hectare semi-desert designated a Biosphere Reserve. Castildetierra, a 50-metre clay-and-sandstone butte, loses several centimetres each year to water erosion. The area is so arid that the Spanish Air Force has operated a firing range there since 1951. Yet in winter, flocks of Navarrese sheep still come down to graze the Bardenas under a transhumance system regulated by the Junta de Bardenas since the Middle Ages.
San Fermín, DO Navarra, and the Ebro market gardens
The San Fermín bull runs (6–14 July) cover 849 metres from the Santo Domingo corrals to the bullring in between 2 and 6 minutes, depending on the breed. Beyond Pamplona, the DO Navarra spans 11,000 hectares of vineyard, where garnacha rosé has long been its signature — though red wine production now exceeds rosé. The Ebro riverbank between Tudela and Cortes grows artichokes (Alcachofa de Tudela, PGI), piquillo peppers (Pimiento del Piquillo de Lodosa, PDO), and white asparagus (Espárrago de Navarra, PGI) — three products with their own protected designations within a 30 km radius.