Parc de Pedra Tosca. Route Olot 4

This easy walk is perfect for the whole family. You pass along the Carrilet, the former train line to Girona that acts as a reminder of Olot’s rich industrial past. Further on you visit El Parc de Pedra Tosca.

  • Modality
    • By foot
  • Region
    • Garrotxa
  • Towns
    • Olot
    • Preses, Les
  • Time
    • Less than 3 hours
  • Difficulty
    • Easy
  • Estimated duration
    • 2h35min
  • Distance
    • 10,3 Km
  • Hide elevation maximum
    • 487m
  • Hide elevation minimum
    • 431m
  • Ascent
    • 80m
  • Descent
    • 80m

This easy walk is perfect for the whole family. You pass along the Carrilet, the former train line to Girona that acts as a reminder of Olot’s rich industrial past. Further on you visit El Parc de Pedra Tosca.

Once in El Parc Nou, it is worth visiting the Aromatic Plants Botanical Garden, as well as the Museum of the Volcans, where there is a 3-D model of the whole volcanic zone and an earthquake simulator.

Leave Plaça de Josep Clarà in Olot (G15) along Passeig de Barcelona and follow it as far as the bridge, El Pont de Ferro, over the river Fluvià. Cross and turn right immediately alongside the river and continue on to Pont de Sant Roc, where signpost O11 points you along the bike lane towards El Parc de Pedra Tosca.

Follow the bike lane (also known as the Ruta del Carrilet in honour of the narrow-gauge railway from Girona to Olot that once ran along here), which links a number of sites of interest including the Tossols-Basil athletics track, designed by the architects RCR, and a former station, known as El Baixador de Codella, that has been converted into a bar.

At the Baixador, you will come to signpost P6, which indicates the entrance into El Parc de Pedra Tosca, a veritable labyrinth of paths, dry-stone walls, small fields and stone huts. The whole area was restored by Les Preses Town Council through a European LIFE project, in collaboration with the same architects as designed the athletics track: Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta.

Enter El Parc de Pedra Tosca and cross through this area of small open spaces along the path lined with ironwork and stone walls that heads for the main road to Les Preses. Once at the road, cross and enter the area known as Bosc de Tosca. Pass by the football pitch  parking signpost P9 straight ahead along the paved road and head up to the right towards the houses at Pocafarina. Here you will come to signpost P7 that points you on along Camí de les Llongaines towards Els Paratges de la Deu and La Moixina.

El Camí de les Llongaines is at first a made-up road but soon turns into a dirt track that leads on to a narrow path through an oakwood and out behind the riding stables next to the Bonavista quarter of Olot.In crossroad P13 Bosc de Can Serra go straight.

Once at the riding stables, turn left along a road until you come to a dirt track heading off to the right; turn downhill here and head for La Deu.

At the bottom of the descent you reach a road where you should turn left. Almost immediately, you will see off to your right the source of a stream, El Rec de Revell, whose waters flow through the marshy woodland of La Deu and La Moixina. Ignore the road off to your right and follow the yellow paint marks past the restaurant and on to a roundabout on larger road, El Vial de Sant Jordi. Here, turn right and immediately cross the road on a zebra crossing. Follow a dirt track past Mas Cabreró and through a number of well-tended vegetable gardens. This track will take you to the entrance to El Parc Nou, a botanical garden guarded by a large stately building, La Torre dels Castanys, that is today home to the Museum of the Volcans.

Leave El Parc Nou along Avinguda de Cuba and head towards La Plaça Amèrica. Cross this large roundabout, with a sculpture by Rosa Serra in its midst, and continue straight on between the city’s two large sports halls as far as the iron bridge over the river Fluvià.

Cross the river and turn right towards Els Prats de la Mandra, and then to another bridge over the river, Pont de les Móres (which you do not cross), where you will come to signpost G22. From here if you want to follow the course of the river, continue behind a school, Escola Malagrida, alongside the river as far as the bus station and signpost G161 Estació d’autobusos. From here, head up to Carrer Bisbe Lorenzana, turn left and continue as this street changes its name to Carrer Mulleres, which will take you back to the route’s starting point in Plaça Clarà G15.

If you want to shorten the route, leaving the yellow marks, you can go along Avinguda Navarra, cross Plaça Estrella and continue along Avinguda Batlló until Passeig de Barcelona, turn right and in a few minutes you will be in Plaça Clarà, where you started the route.