Spain's Camino Vadiniense, Day 1: August 18, 2026

This post continues to document my journey across Spain by foot, experiencing five different and lesser known Camino routes in the northern part of the country during August and September 2026.  On this day, I started on the Camino Vadiniense.  

I finished the short Camino Lebaniego in the tourist town of Potes, Spain, after speinding the night in the municipal albergue there.  A photo of the albergue is below - it is the windows above the row of greenery just above the nearby stream.

I read somewhere that only about one in ten Lebaniego pilgrims continue on to the Camino Vadiniense, which starts at the same point where the Leganiego ends.  The Vadiniense continues southwest from Potes, through the Picos de Europa National Park, and eventually connects with the popular Camino Frances in the town of Masilla de la Mula, a one day walk east of the city of Leon. I was surprised when I read this that the percentage is so low. And, while it may be true that 10% of the Lebaniego pilgrims continue on to the Vadiniense (the rest take a bus back to the coast), my experience was that vastly fewer pilgrims continue onto the Vadiniense, even though it is spectactular.  I only encountered only two other pilgrims on my eight days on the Vadiniense!  For several days, I thought I might be the only person on the entire camino.

Because of the area's proximity to the Picos de Europa National Park and the popularity in Spain of going on vacation during August, I had to reserve my overnights in advance.  Camping is not really an option along most of the Caminios in Spain.  My competition for beds was not other pilgrims, but vacationers attracted by the awesome trails, climbing rocks, and motorcycle routes in the national park.

When planning my journey, I intentionally created a short day leaving Potes, thinking that I would want to spend additional time there instead of the smaller towns I would be heading towards after Potes.  And Potes was a great place to visit, with streets that seemed like they wre straight out of the Middle Ages!

What I found when on the trail, however, was that the urge to move on is very strong.  I could have left Potes later and attended the noon mass at the nearby monastery.  But I really wanted to keep moving and see what was ahead of me on this new Camino.

I ended up hiking out of Potes along the main road heading east, which meant that I avoided the incline I had to take when visiting the monastery.  But it was also probably less beautiful than the trail that headed east from the monastery.  And I dealt with cars along the way, which increased the stress along the way.  Ultimately, it wasn't a big problem hiking along the road, as I left the road 2.5 miles from Potes, and probably half of that distance there were sidewalks separate from the road.

As a result of my early exit from Potes and taking the shorter road route, I found myself within spitting distance of my next night's hostel before 10AM that day.  Way too early to call it quits!  And I should have combined my first two days on the Vadiniense, but it seemed too late to change reservations.  So I went off the Camino and detoured inside the boundaries of Picos de Europa National Park.  I followed a number of woods roads, which became trails, which became animal routes, deep inside the park's boundaries.  Below you can see three photos: the first is while on the Camino (with a yellow arrow guiding the way), the second was taken inside the park on a woods road about 1600 feet higher than my Camino elevation, and the third looks back downslope from my highest elevation point.  When I took the third photo, I was at the edge of tree line, had not seen anyone else for several hours, and was concerned that I was getting too far off track.  So I started back down and saw mountain bikers about a half hour later.

I eventually descended to a small town with some upscale lodging before reaching my hostel for the night: Albergue La Vargona.

My hostel was crowded and noisy, with lots of tourists - both in the hostel and outside enjoying the restaurant downstairs.  There was one other Camino pilgrim staying there, and he came in very angry about something.  He said that he had been on many Caminos before and had never had such a bad experience before.  When I tried to get him to tell me what that experience was, he snapped at me that he didn't speak English and wasn't going to get into it.  I spent the next couple of days avoiding him until our parallel paths made this impossible.