Gibraltar's own nature reserve covers [233 hectares](https://thinkinggreen.gov.gi/biodiversity/rock-of-gibraltar-nature-reserve), about 36 per cent of the territory's land area. Drive 21 km north from the frontier and you are standing in one that covers 173,619. That second figure belongs to [Los Alcornocales](https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/portal/areas-tematicas/espacios-protegidos/legislacion-autonomica-nacional/parques-naturales/parque-natural-los-alcornocales), declared a natural park on 28 July 1989 and spread across sixteen municipalities in Cadiz province and one in Malaga. It holds the largest preserved and productive cork oak forest on the Iberian Peninsula. With the Gibraltar cable car closed for reconstruction until 2027, it is the best nature day out inside an hour of the Rock, and hardly anyone staying in Gibraltar goes. You will read, again and again, that Los Alcornocales is the only subtropical forest in Europe. It is not. The accurate version is narrower, and better. Laurisilva, the humid laurel forest that covered the Mediterranean basin more than 20 million years ago, survives in quantity in Macaronesia, and the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores are all Europe. [Garajonay National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garajonay_National_Park) on La Gomera was declared in 1981 and inscribed by UNESCO in 1986, and its 40 square kilometres are the reference point for Atlantic laurel forest. Anyone telling you Cadiz province has the continent's only subtropical woodland has not looked at a map of Spain. What is true, and what the park's own material says, is that on the European mainland Los Alcornocales holds the biggest and best preserved relicts of that lost forest. They survive in the canutos. That is the word to learn before you go. A canuto is a narrow, deep valley cut by a stream, so steep sided and so shaded that Atlantic fog collects on the floor and direct sun barely reaches it. The result is a pocket of permanent humidity in a province that hits 40 degrees in August. Inside them grow laurel, rhododendron, alder, holly, hazel and a floor of ferns, the smooth glossy leaves of plants built for damp shade rather than Mediterranean glare. Walk up out of the canuto and the vegetation switches completely: cork oak, wild olive, rockrose and thyme. That contrast, over one short climb, is the single best reason to come. > The cork oaks are the postcard. The canutos are the point. Since 15 July 2026 there have been no routine passport checks at the land border with Spain, which removed the one thing that used to make a Spanish day trip from Gibraltar unpredictable. The queue risk that shaped every itinerary here for forty years is gone, and we covered what replaced it in our guide to [the 15 July 2026 border changes](/blog/gibraltar-border-15-july-2026-treaty-changes). By road, the two closest entry points are straightforward. Castellar de la Frontera is 21 km from La Linea de la Concepcion, about 22 minutes. Jimena de la Frontera is 41 km, about 45 minutes, and nearly two thirds of that municipality lies inside the park boundary. Without a car it is easier than most visitors assume. [Renfe](https://www.renfe.com/) runs the Algeciras to Ronda line through the park, calling at San Roque La Linea, Almoraima and Jimena de la Frontera. San Roque La Linea is the nearest station to Gibraltar. Jimena to Algeciras is timetabled at 53 minutes over about 34 km, so the leg from San Roque is shorter than that. Services are sparse, usually a handful a day, so check the timetable before you plan the return rather than after. Almoraima station is worth knowing about for its own sake. It sits beside [La Almoraima](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Almoraima), an estate of more than 14,000 hectares inside the park, expropriated by the Spanish state in 1983 and publicly owned ever since. It is one of the largest estates in Europe and it belongs to everybody. [[WIDGET:LiveWeather]] | | Gibraltar Nature Reserve | Los Alcornocales | | Protected area | 233 hectares | 173,619 hectares | | Protected since | 1993, extended 2013 | 28 July 1989 | | From Victory Suites | on the Rock behind you | 21 km to Castellar de la Frontera | | Headline wildlife | Barbary macaques and Barbary partridge | up to 18 species of birds of prey | | Cost of entry | ticketed at the reserve gates | free to walk in | | The catch | cable car closed until 2027 | five trails need a permit booked in advance | This is the detail that ruins day trips. Several of the best routes in the park are restricted, and you need written authorisation before you set out. On the [Junta de Andalucia visitor portal](https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/portal/en/web/ventanadelvisitante/detalle-buscador-mapa/-/asset_publisher/Jlbxh2qB3NwR/content/los-alcornocales/255035) the list covers Subida al Picacho, Subida al Aljibe, La Sauceda, Canuto de Risco Blanco and the Travesia del Aljibe, plus the Picacho to Peguera cycle route. The permits