Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación

Leaving from the capital city of Albacete and taking advantage for most of its route of the unfinished Baeza-Utiel railway platform, the trail crosses La Mancha plain among bare areas, dry lands sown with cereals, irrigation crops and scrubland areas, until it reaches the bridge over the River Mirón, close to Balazote. During your trek, you can see the still well-preserved brick works built for the railway, as well as the buildings for the planned stations of San Jorge and Las Santanas, which never provided a service as the works were halted in 1963.

This section of the Sierra de Alcaraz Nature Trail begins in the city centre of Albacete, next to the Fiesta del Árbol park, where an informative panel, surrounded by a wooden railing, marks the beginning of the route. This Nature Trail shares its first 5.9 km, in the city’s peri-urban area, with different sections of the María Cristina Canal Nature Trail and its branches, given the fact that, in these initial kilometres, recovery of the railway platform was impossible.

After walking some 2 km, you reach a spot known as "El Palo", where you can rest and freshen up, as it has a drinking water fountain. You then cross the bridge again, to continue along the right-hand-side bank of the canal until you reach its first fork (KP 3.7 of the route). At this point, and following the instructions on the signs, the trail continues along El Acequión canal branch, leaving on the left that of La Estacadilla canal.

Continue along the right-hand-side bank of the canal, until you reach a floodable underpass (at approximately KP 4), which you use to cross the A-32 highway.

You should take into account that the María Cristina canals were built to drain the wetlands surrounding Albacete and may be carrying water depending on the groundwater level. If this occurs, this underpass is closed. As an alternative route, you can use the aforementioned branch of La Estacadilla canal, which you can take by returning to the fork at KP 3.7. After walking some 7.5 km, this branch joins up at KP 11.5 with the Sierra de Alcaraz Nature Trail.

If the pass under the A-32 is water free, after crossing it, you can continue along the branch of the Acequión canal. On reaching the next fork (KP 4.5), you should not leave it but turn rightwards, passing on your left Los Ojos de San Jorge canal branch.

A little further on, you come to the spot known as the "Huerta del Rey", or the King’s Kitchen Garden, where you will find a recreational area containing drinking water. Continue along the left-hand-side bank of the canal until you arrive at El Acequión rest area (KP 5.9). Here, after turning to the left and crossing the bridge, the trail finally leaves the branches of the María Cristina canal to rest almost in its entirety, for the next 24.8 km, on the old Baeza-Utiel railway platform.

At KP 6.6, you will find your first railway relic, a walkway built over the railway platform to avoid the level crossing. This point marks the beginning of a long straight stretch (4.9 km). Some metres before KP 9, the trail is no longer asphalted and is made of compact artificial gravel, which is perfectly fitted out for practising cyclo-tourism or trekking. In this first section, the trail once again intersects the branch of Los Ojos de San Jorge canal (KP 7.9), until it reaches the old station of San Jorge and the eponymous rest area (KP 9). After leaving behind a second deserted railway crossing, you reach, at the end of a slight bend to the left, the intersection with the end of the Estacadilla canal branch (KP 11.5).

After a short straight section, the trail then crosses the N-322 highway and turns rightwards. It then continues in a straight line for another 4 km as far as “Las Santanas” rest area (KP 17). The landscape you can see on both sides of the trail for these first kilometres of the route is that typical of the plain of La Mancha, characterised by extensive, bare agricultural fields, which are fallow or mainly sown with cereals and irrigation crops (corn and alfalfa).

After turning to the right once again, you continue along another straight section for 9.3 km as far as the outskirts of Balazote. In this final part of the trail, and once you have passed the Tajo-Segura aqueduct (approximately KP 20), the landscape changes and the trail enters areas where there is a predominance of Mediterranean scrubland, strewn with Holm-oaks (Quercus ilex) and Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) stands.At this point of the route, if you pay attention to your environment and you are lucky, you might be able to see the characteristic fauna of the area represented by the common rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the hare (Lepus granatensis), the fox (Vulpes vulpes) and birds, such as the European snake eagle (Circaetus gallicus), the common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and the wood pigeon (Columba palumbus).

At approximately KP 26.3, the trail turns sharply to the right. This occurs because, from this point as far as KP 28.9, the old railway platform, after the works were abandoned, was reversed and is closed. After covering 2.6 km of paths that are open to motorised traffic, the route returns to the original railway line until it reaches the bridge over the River Mirón, 1.6 km from Balazote. This is the last of the remains of the railway you can see, as it was built to withstand the passing of the trains, although once the railway works were abandoned, its access embankments were dismantled. The Sierra de Alcaraz Nature Trail ends at this point.