Stage 4 - Logroño - Belorado

ByTravesía Pirenaica
French Way / Photo: Jynus_ (CC BY-SA 2.5)
French Way / Photo: Jynus_ (CC BY-SA 2.5)
  • Distance Stage: 76 Km
  • Maximum height: 827.66 m
  • Minimum height: 376.98 m
  • Positive difference in altitude: 1158.33 m
  • Negative difference in altitude: 739.55 m

The Way of St. James Stage Four

We are about to tackle a stage that will take us across the Rioja region on our way to Castile. This is a relatively easy stage, so much so that we recommend a short detour of 13 km to visit San Millán de la Cogolla for those who have the strength to do so.

As always, leaving a capital city like Logroño is not easy, in this case we will walk through the Grajea urban park until we leave the city. This is a very beautiful greenway where we can see the Grajea reservoir lake (a recreational and leisure area for the people of Logroño).

After 8 km since we left the centre of Logroño, we leave this greenway and climb for a kilometre and a half to the Alto de la Gallina.

We descend until we cross the N-120 and the motorway, passing in front of the ruins of the old pilgrims' hospital of San Juan de Acre, we climb again to Navarrete (km 12.7).

We take a succession of tracks and roads surrounded by vineyards and construction sites until we reach Nájera (km 29.6), passing through Ventosa (km 20). This journey until we reach Nájera is long and arduous, without presenting any notable difficulties.

Leaving Nájera we climb a steep slope to take a tarmac track that leads us to Azofra (km 37.5). 

It is at this point that we must decide whether to take the 13 km route to San Millán de la Cogolla (to visit the Monastery of Yuso, the cradle of Castilian), to resume our route in Santo Domingo de la Calzada; or, on the contrary, to continue the pilgrim's path to Santo Domingo de la Calzada).

We describe the pilgrim's path that after 10km takes us to Cirueña, during this crossing, the vineyards disappear and we begin to see the large fields for the cultivation of cereals, this indicates that Castile is already near.

We leave Cirueña along a farm track that climbs slightly and then descends to Santo Domingo de La calzada (km 51).

After visiting and resting in this beautiful town, we head towards Grañon (km 57) (the last town in the Rioja), which we can reach by road (3.5 km) or by road (1.9 km).

We continue our pilgrimage along tracks and plots of land and 2 km further on we enter Castile (land that will accompany us for a large number of stages), and so we reach Redecilla (km 61), after crossing the N-120 (the first town in Burgos), from here we pass through three more towns: Castildelgado, Viloria de Rioja and Villamayor del Río and from here to Belorado (km 76) and the Castilian resting point after this stage.