Grado to Salas
Climb
- Distance
- 22 km
- Climb
- 720 m up, 560 m down
- Ground
- 76 to 540 m
- Time
- 6 to 8 hours
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Underfoot
- dirt, forest, paved, mountain
Where this day sits on the Camino Primitivo
Above, the highest and lowest ground of each of its 11 stages. Below, the word each day is given.
From open-pilgrimages: each stage's highest and lowest ground and its interior theme.
The day
Today the mountains start. You leave Grado on a steady climb through small Asturian villages — Cabruñana, San Marcelo, La Doriga — each one with a stone church that has stood since the Reconquest. The forest is denser than yesterday. By midday you crest a low pass and look back east to Oviedo's distant hills. The descent into Salas is on cobbled lanes through farmhouses where elderly Asturians watch from doorways and call out 'buen camino' in accents you have never heard. Salas is a quiet medieval town with a tower house in its centre and a stone bridge over the Nonaya river.
What pilgrims often meet here
- The steady climb out of Grado in the morning cool
- First small Asturian village stops — coffee from a battered espresso machine
- Realising the Primitivo is harder than expected
- Arriving in Salas tired but not exhausted
What does it feel like to be greeted by people whose accent you cannot place?
The ground
The light
Sunrise and sunset in Grado depend on the day you walk.
Walk it with Pilgrim
Pilgrim doesn't carry the Camino Primitivo as a route yet. You can still walk it with the app in Wander mode, speaking what arises and keeping it on your phone.