What mountain range do Don Quixote and Sancho wander into in Part One?

The mountain range Don Quixote and Sancho wander into in Part One is Sierra Morena.

They enter the Sierra Morena after Don Quixote frees a group of galley slaves, an act that brings them into conflict with the Holy Brotherhood. Sancho suggests the mountains as a refuge, and the pair retreat into this rugged range in southern Spain. The episodes there include Don Quixote’s self-conscious performance of knightly suffering and the tangled stories of other travelers.

Sierra Morena is not the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. It runs roughly east to west along the southern edge of Spain’s Meseta Central, separating the Guadiana basin from the Guadalquivir valley. Its landscape and reputation made it a fitting setting for danger, concealment, wandering, and romantic adventure.

The range also connects the novel to Spanish folklore. Stories of bandits and other legendary figures helped make Sierra Morena a culturally charged landscape, while Cervantes turned it into one of Part One’s most memorable settings.