Carretera Agost, a winding road only for experienced drivers
Located in the comarca of Vinalopó Mitjà, in the province of Alicante of the autonomous community of Valencia, Spain, Carretera Agost is the name of a defiant road through the mountains with many deep drop offs.
Set high in the Sierra del Maigmó mountain range, Carretera Agost is a tarmaced road mostly wide enough for passing with care although typically only two or three other vehicles will be encountered. So proceed cautiously and hope no other vehicles come from the other direction. Not recommended if you don't know how to reverse.
The road is 17.0 km (10.56 miles) long, running west-east from Petrer to Agost. The road passes through the El Maigmo Nature Reserve and has spectacular scenery of a pine forest latticed with water eroded canyons. The road has steep ascents and descents, hairpins and many deep drop offs. It tops out at 713m (2,339ft) above the sea level, and hits a 19% of maximum gradient through some of the ramps.
After 8.5km the road reaches the Rincon Bello Recreation Area with car park, toilets, seating etc is a great place to use as the start of a hiking excursion in the area or just a place to take in the scenery. A further 10km of similar undulating roads and scenery brings you to the outskirts town of Agost, famous for its ceramics. For anyone interested there is a great series of Geocaches over 4km from Rincon Bello in the direction of Agost.
Road suggested by: Mike New