Parque Natural Salinas de Santa Pola

Parque Natural Salinas de Santa Pola is an area of salt lagoons and working salt pans on the coast by Santa Pola, where flamingos are easy to spot. The Salt Museum occupies former salt-works buildings, and trails with viewpoints run between the ponds and the dunes.

Parque Natural Salinas de Santa Pola covers about 2,470 ha of salt lagoons, salt pans, dunes and beaches on the Bay of Santa Pola. Together with El Fondo, it was once part of the Elche lagoon, which was filled in during the 17th century. It was declared a natural park on 27 December 1994. Salt has been produced here by evaporating seawater since 1900, and the Bras del Port and Bonmatí salt works are still active. It is an example of industry and nature working together: flooding the lagoons with seawater to produce salt created an artificial wetland here. The best-known residents are flamingos, which can number up to around 8,000 in the breeding season. Their pink colour comes from their food, mainly tiny Artemia brine shrimp that live in the salt ponds. You can also see avocets, black-winged stilts, little terns, shelducks and shovelers, among others, and the endemic Spanish toothcarp (fartet) lives in the water. The salty soils support plants such as Sarcocornia fruticosa and the endemic sea lavender Limonium santapolense. A good starting point is the Salt Museum, set in former salt-works buildings, which explains how salt is obtained and how the local ecosystem formed. The Senda del Pinet trail (about 3.8 km) runs between old salt ponds and dunes, with hides and views of Cape Santa Pola and Tabarca island. The Tamarit beach trail (about 3 km) runs between the sea and the ponds to an old salt pier and salt mounds, returning along the beach. The 16th-century Torre de Tamarit defence tower stands in one of the lagoons. Sunrise and sunset are good times for photos, and one visitor points out that there is no shade. The park is reached via the N-332 road, which has a turn-off at kilometre 87.