The car park at Can Serra charges by the minute, which is a detail I discovered while standing at the barrier calculating whether a slow walk was going to cost me more than a fast one. It does not, but nobody warns you.
Getting the week right matters far more than getting the forest right. I drove ninety minutes one early October and found the whole wood still green, three weeks short of anything worth photographing.
Catalan autumn, the basics
Good window mid October to mid November · Garrotxa at its peak last week of October, first of November
Fageda d’en Jordà flat, 3 km, paid parking · La Grevolosa 5,8 km with 250 m of climb, free parking
The specific week decides everything, and it is what most visitors misjudge.
Check how the current year is running before you drive. A long summer pushes the turn back and one early Pre-Pyrenean snowfall ends it within two days.
The beech wood growing on a lava flow
It grows on the solidified lava flow of the Croscat volcano, spread across Santa Pau, Olot and les Preses, an oddity no other beech wood on the peninsula shares.
That lava explains the ground, rippled with mounds up to 20 metres high known locally as tossols, and it explains the altitude too. The wood sits at 550 metres, where Iberian beech forests normally start above 900. According to the official site of the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, it counts as one of its 28 nature reserves, ringed by the 21 volcanoes in the county.
The short trail runs about 3 kilometres in an hour, flat and accessible. And the detail missing from most listings: the Can Serra car park bills by the minute, roughly 0,034 € across the first two hours and half that after. Two hours works out near 4 €, and the revenue funds conservation of the forest and the Croscat and Santa Margarida reserves.
Barcelona to the car park is a long ninety minutes, further out than most of the day trips I usually take.
What separates these woods is not the scenery, it is how far you walk to reach it.
| Forest | Where | Route | Parking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fageda d’en Jordà | La Garrotxa | 3 flat km, 1 h | Can Serra, paid |
| Fageda de Santa Fe | Montseny | 1 signposted km | Free |
| Fageda de la Grevolosa | Sant Pere de Torelló | 5,8 km, 250 m climb | Gravel, free |
| Bosc de Poblet | Muntanyes de Prades | 3 or 6 km | Forest hut, limited |
| Les Roques Encantades | Les Planes d’Hostoles | Short and flat | Village |
| Bosc de Carlac | Val d’Aran | Loop, demanding | Bausen |
Elevation gain decides whether the day works or turns into an argument.
Route 1 links the Fageda with the Croscat and Santa Margarida volcanoes. Worth doing, but it is a different plan entirely: 11 kilometres and over four hours.
The wood with the tallest trees
Fageda de la Grevolosa, in the Llancers range, within Sant Pere de Torelló, on the border between Osona and La Garrotxa.
Numbers describe it better than adjectives do. It sits at 1.037 metres, the largest specimen measures 41 metres with a trunk circumference of 5,15 metres, and the oldest trees went in around 1750. According to official records from Catalonia’s monumental tree catalogue, three of these beeches are listed in it.
The standard loop is 5,8 kilometres with 250 metres of climb, roughly two hours. It starts at the gravel car park at Sant Andreu de la Vola and the first stretch climbs continuously, passing the fourteenth-century Sant Nazari chapel, where picnic tables sit under two oaks.
Two practical warnings. There is no mobile coverage, so download your map before arriving. And alternative approaches from above, via Molí de Bracons or Coll de Bracons, cut the walk considerably.
It lies around 20 kilometres from Fageda d’en Jordà, so both fit into one weekend, ideally closed off with vermouth at a neighbourhood bodega once you are back in the city.
With six woods and routes this varied, the choice depends on your company more than on the trees.
Pick this one if
- You have small children, Santa Fe
- You want the icon without walking, the Fageda
- You came for huge trees, La Grevolosa
- You have the whole day, route 1
- You want solitude, Poblet or el Retaule
Leave it for another day if
- It is a late October weekend
- You have not checked how the leaves are doing
- You are in street shoes for La Grevolosa
- You are relying on phone signal to navigate
- You are leaving Barcelona after lunch
The right-hand column has ruined more of my outings than anything else, and usually the first line.
What you walk on in the Garrotxa has a very specific origin, which explains why that forest sits where it does.
Those tossols, the mounds up to 20 metres that make the ground roll underfoot, are lava. They are not hills.
The easy ones, for children or reluctant walkers
Fageda de Santa Fe, inside Montseny Natural Park, has a signposted 1-kilometre trail with a river, wooden walkways, a spring and picnic tables. The stroll to the Font del Frare is the standard. Under an hour from Barcelona, so a half morning covers it and leaves time for a bodega lunch back in the city.
At Fageda d’en Jordà, the short 3-kilometre path threads flat between trunks and giant ferns.
On the horse-drawn carriage rides leaving from Can Serra: they last about an hour and include a fifteen-minute stop. I walk instead, and some visitors question how the animals are treated. Given the short trail is flat and takes an hour, the carriage solves a problem I do not have.
The ones almost nobody walks
Les Roques Encantades, at Les Planes d’Hostoles, are large moss-covered boulders scattered among beeches and fallen leaves, inside La Garrotxa but off the circuit.
Bosc de Poblet, in the Muntanyes de Prades, mixes oak, chestnut and beech across trails of 3 and 6 kilometres starting at the forest hut. Parking is tight, so arrive early.
Bosc de Carlac, near Bausen in the Val d’Aran by the French border, offers a loop through twisted beeches and early morning fog.
Fageda del Retaule, in Els Ports Natural Park down in the Montsià, sits far enough from Barcelona to stay genuinely empty, with pools and caves nearby.
Days I stay away from beech woods
Late October weekends. The Garrotxa park itself advises against its route 1 in autumn on account of visitor numbers, suggesting another season instead, and 11 kilometres shared with half of Catalonia is no forest.
Early October without checking. My textbook error. The opposite exists too: arrive mid November and you may find bare trees and the colour all on the floor.
La Grevolosa after rain. The gravel forest track and that first climb turn slippery, and with no phone signal it is a poor place to improvise.
Any of them in a hurry. These woods ask you to stop. If the plan is park, photograph, drive home, stay in bed instead.
What years of going has taught me
Check the leaf state that same week. The dates here are the pattern, not a promise. The year decides.
Dress in layers. Inside the beech wood it cools down even in sunshine, and Garrotxa autumns run 10 to 18 degrees.
Download the map before leaving. La Grevolosa has no signal, and coverage drops before the car park.
Carry water. On Garrotxa route 1 the only spring sits in the Santa Margarida area, and nothing is open for the kind of cheap lunch you get in the city.
La Grevolosa holds up all year round, and outside October it is usually empty, the same trick that works for the city’s quieter corners.
In these forests the right answer is never the place. It is the week.
Know a beech wood missing from this list? Catalonia holds more than I have walked. Message me on Instagram @barcelonainspira and I will note it down for October.
Keep exploring Barcelona with me
More plans and corners I write about here, all from a local’s point of view: the neighbourhood bodegas where I go for vermouth, what lies beneath the city, permanent bracelets and where to get one, and the full run of plans, gastronomy, experiences, getaways, culture and Catalan brands.
When do Catalonia’s forests turn colour
Between mid October and mid November. For the Garrotxa area the last week of October and the first of November are the safest bet. Dates shift every year, because a long summer delays the turn and an early snowfall in the Pre-Pyrenees can end the season within days.
Which autumn forest in Catalonia is worth the drive
Fageda d’en Jordà is the emblematic one: it grows on the cooled lava flow of the Croscat volcano at 550 metres, unusually low for an Iberian beech wood. For monumental trees and fewer people, La Grevolosa holds a 41-metre specimen and beeches planted around 1750.
What does parking cost at Fageda d’en Jordà
The Can Serra car park charges by the minute, roughly 0,034 euros for the first two hours and half that afterwards, so a two-hour visit lands near 4 euros. The money goes towards conserving the forest and the Croscat and Santa Margarida reserves.
Which Catalan beech wood suits small children
Fageda de Santa Fe in the Montseny has a signposted 1-kilometre trail with wooden walkways, a spring and picnic tables, under an hour from Barcelona. At Fageda d’en Jordà the short path is flat and easy: about 3 kilometres in an hour.
How do you get to Fageda de la Grevolosa
Two approaches exist, above or below the Bracons tunnel. The usual one starts at Sant Andreu de la Vola in Sant Pere de Torelló, with a free gravel car park and a forest track. The loop runs about 5,8 kilometres with 250 metres of climb, and there is no mobile signal.
How do you avoid the autumn crowds in these forests
Going midweek, which is the only thing that reliably works. The Garrotxa park itself advises against its main route in autumn because of visitor numbers. La Grevolosa draws considerably fewer people and stays near empty midweek, though October weekends fill up there too.
