Around the Teide

Adrian Morales Adventure Tenerife 10/07/2020 | 1

The caldera, the giant crater of Las Cañadas. This impressive area, 18 km long, was once the summit of the Teide at an altitude of 2000 metres. Violent eruptions, which emptied a huge magma chamber, left a huge cavity underground. The ceiling eventually collapsed under the weight of the volcano. The Las Cañadas crater was formed.

Much later the Pico Viejo and then the Teide grew.

Las Cañadas has very distinctive vegetation and, of course, lava flows. There are also many hiking trails with different levels of difficulty.

You can visit the Cañadas from the Centro de Visitante.

If you want to reach the peak of the Teide, you should climb the Montaña Blanca. This tour lasts several hours.

The first ascent leads to the pumice peaks of Montaña Blanca. There are huge, almost bizarre balls of lava lying around. The Teide eggs, as they are often called, were formed because they preceded the great lava flow.

From here you can reach the cable car (Teleferico) to Teide in about 3 km. There is a mountain station at 3,555 metres and it is not possible to go any higher for conservation reasons.

Departure from the Parador Nacional Hotel. It is a round trip of about 2 hours where you can enjoy the fantastic high mountain scenery. You can visit Los Roques (the landmark of Tenerife) on foot. The route is relatively unmaintained.

There is also a beautiful mountain hike to Guajara (2715 m). It is a bit more demanding and can be done in about 4 hours.

If you are planning to do these tours by bus, be sure to download an up-to-date bus app. Otherwise you can find the “public bus” of Dr. Molls Vulkan Expedition in well-stocked bookstores. But you should always check the actual timetable!

We would like to thank the team of Dr. Molls Vulkan Expedition for providing us with this information and for allowing us to use it in our blog.

The Canaries invite everyone to do many different outdoor activities. And a very nice idea is to do a climbing tour in this volcanic landscape. We climbed the Cañadas with a guide. And it was fantastic. Finding a professional guide here and taking advantage of the really wide variety of activities on offer all year round – well worth it!