Mount Teide National Park offers an extensive network of walking trails. In fact, I would recommend at least a week on the National Park alone to attempt to explore what it has to offer, that is without visiting the rest of the beautiful island of Tenerife, the largest island in the Canary Islands, and without walking any of the trails in other areas of natural heritage! Mount Teide dominates the landscape, standing at 3,718 m above sea level and is in the background of the photo below. It is the highest peak in Spain.
The entire Mount Teide National Park is a unique geological treasure in which the volcanoes, craters, vents, lava flows and different materials, form an impressive array of shapes and colours. It was declared a National Park in 1954 and in 1989 it was awarded the top category of the European Diploma of Protected Areas. In 2007, Teide National Park was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
For me, the most enjoyable trail was the Roques de GarcÃa circular trail. Starting and finishing at La Ruletta viewpoint, this easy trail takes about two hours. The trail borders around the Los Roques rock formations. The path is completely flat to start with (in fact, it is very accessible for the first stretch) before it heads down to the plain known as Llano de Ucanca, which was created by sedimentary rock. As you descend and before you reach the plain, you will see an amazing tongue of lava known as La Cascada (The Waterfall). After walking across a short stretch of the plain, where natural volcanic walls formed by dense lava rise to the left, you will begin to climb up towards where you started. Before you get there, you will see a spectacular jaggy rock known as La Catedral (The Cathedral). This striking rock formation is in fact a volcanic phonolite chimney: an outlet through which lava once flowed, solidified and never made it to the surface, which is now exposed after years of erosion. The plantlife you will see on this walk is varied and interesting.
It is cooler on the National Park than in the coastal areas so I would advise suitable clothing. It would also be sensible to check the weather before venturing out!
