ROADS IN TEIDE PARK

La Laguna - El Portillo road. 7 km from La Laguna on the TF-24, the village of La Esperanza (or El Rosario) is the last inhabited area and is worth a stop, as it is a traditional village, representative of rural Tenerife. Above 700 meters of altitude, you will start to observe the Canary pine forest. The first panorama is that of the Pico de las Flores (Peak of the Flowers), which rises to more than 1,300 meters above sea level, and from which the view extends on both sides of the ridge. Further on, you can enjoy the same type of scenery by stopping at 1,810 meters above sea level at the Ortuño viewpoint, from which the view extends to La Victoria to the north and to the village of Candelaria to the south. Before continuing, we can make a stop in Arafo, a small village with a deep-rooted cultural heritage and musical tradition, known as the "village of music". After the road that descends to Arafo, we will take a small road on the right that leads to the two viewpoints of Las Cumbres (the ridges) that open onto the valley of La Orotava, often crossed by a sea of clouds. The pine trees become rarer: the road exceeds 2,000 meters above sea level and dominates the bare, folded slopes of the Crucita mountain range (1,940 meters), made up of long strips of black, purple or dark red sand. Shortly after the Crucita, the road cuts through layers of multicolored volcanic sand. The white layer is a very fragile layer of pumice, which could only be preserved between more resistant layers of black, basaltic sand.

At 37 kilometers from La Laguna, a junction on the left leads to the Astronomical Observatory of Tenerife, built in 1964 on the Montaña de Izaña, at an altitude of 2,387 meters. Here we are always above the clouds, and the telescope enjoys a clear atmosphere throughout the year. Today it is still used for scientific activities of solar observation and astronomical robotics and is one of the most productive telescopes in the world thanks to its infrared night observation. And it was here, in 1995, that the rhythmic frequency of the sun (every 5 minutes) was discovered. We then arrive at El Portillo. In El Portillo, you can visit the visitor's center, which has a small museum where you can learn more about the Teide Natural Park (plants, species, origin of the volcanic formations...) through video libraries, photographic panels and the reconstruction of a lava tunnel. The visit is free of charge, as is the visit to the small botanical garden next to it, which contains more than 75% of the species of the National Park.

Route La Orotava - El Portillo. You will then take the TF-21 road, which winds 26 kilometers from La Orotava to Teide, as it is the shortest route to get there. You will find many restaurants with panoramic terraces until you reach the village of Aguamansa, at an altitude of 1,000 meters. Here the pine forest begins. It owes its density to the humid clouds that the trade winds accumulate at this altitude on the northern slope. This area is one of the richest in water of Tenerife and allows to water the banana plantations in the valley.

Just after, a small road on the left leads to La Caldera: it is not yet Las Cañadas, but a small crater surrounded by trees in which a picnic area has been set up.

Further on the mirador de la Piedra is located next to a rocky curiosity, Las Margaritas del Teide. These are gray basaltic prisms in the shape of a rosette, in fact a volcanic tube from which the solidified stone has crumbled into strips. This viewpoint has two parts, the first one facing west allows very good views of Teide, Puerto de la Cruz, the valley of La Orotava and the island of La Palma whose silhouette can be seen on a clear day. The second one is a good observation point towards the Margaritas del Teide. There is an interpretation panel and a parking lot.

Vilaflor - Boca de Tauce road. The access road to Vilaflor from the coast is already very tortured, but it is also tortured until Boca de Tauce, because the slope is very steep on this side of the caldera that has not collapsed. And the route passes through a gap in the wall forming a pass. The panoramas that it offers are breathtaking.

Just after Vilaflor, the viewpoint of Pino Gordo, at 1,400 meters above sea level (the "big pine"), is the most imposing in the archipelago, with its 60 meters height and a trunk of 2.70 meters wide.

Higher up, there is a picnic area in Las Lajas that also accepts tents and caravans for a maximum stay of seven days (subject to prior reservation). Before reaching the caldera pass and Boca de Tauce, you will find three viewpoints offering an incredible view of the arid southern tip of the island.

Route Chio - Boca de Tauce. The TF-82 road is the one with the fewest twists and turns to get to Chio from Santiago del Teide or Los Gigantes. From Adeje, it is straighter, but longer. This road was traced through the forest crown of Teide, over the lava flows of the ancient volcano Chynero, which erupted in 1909 and poured its lava torrents down the valley to the village of Santiago del Teide. This was the last eruption that the inhabitants of Tenerife experienced. The mantle of solidified lava called mantos de lava in the plain of the caldera is very impressive once you reach the end of the climb. You will then see, in the distance, the island of La Palma in its sea of clouds.

Route El Portillo - Boca de Tauce. From the village of El Portillo, we will have a first view of the caldera and the Guajara mountain from the viewpoint of San José. Then we pass under the Rajada mountain, that is to say "the cracked mountain": a dome of yellow pumice, dotted with brown blocks and culminating at 2,507 meters.

A little further on, we reach an area covered with white sand, the Arenas Blancas, emitted by the Montaña Blanca, the great neighbor the Rajada, stuck at 2,750 meters to the side of Teide. It is also a dome covered with pumice stones, white or rather yellow with, in places, red, green or black tones.

Between the Rajada mountain and the Blanca mountain, a huge viscous flow has spread out, forming today a disordered chaos of black obsidian. Another flow starts from the top of the Blanca Mountain and mixes with the solidified black flows before it could finish its course. Returning to the road, we reach the viewpoint of the Tabonal Negro, a second panorama of the gigantic flows of the caldera, which extend to the foot of the Guajara mountain, the third highest peak after the Teide and the Pico Veijo (2,718 meters), in its most beautiful face. It is in this area that we will meet an endemic plant of Teide, the Tajinaste Rojo, used a long time ago for pastures, but nowadays carefully protected. At its peak, the plant can reach two meters in height, with flowers of an intense red. At the end of the flowering, at the end of spring and the beginning of the summer, it will remain only a small reddish zone, contrasting with the environment of the stones in the surroundings. A little further on, a parking lot marks the starting point for the ascent of Teide via Montaña Blanca, and then a short branch road leads to the cable car. The road that passes at the foot of Teide is traced in an impressive field of chaotic lava. The peak rises on the right. We turn then the back to the volcano to join the wall of the caldera and the site called Los Roques de Garcia where the parador is. These are in fact enormous rock formations resulting from the accumulation of several layers of different materials, which before being eroded formed a wall that separated the two calderas of Las Cañadas. From this prolonged erosion result the curious forms that are currently appreciated, the most spectacular being "Roque Cinchado", "La Catedral" and "La Cascada". This massif would be, like the wall of the caldera, a vestige of the ancient volcano, perhaps the remainder of a wall that separated the gigantic crater in two. These rocks are very particular, because the column is much narrower at the base than at the top. This is probably due to the layers of red, pink or purple tuff at the foot which have been eroded much more than the brown lava cap. Prefer to go there in the morning when the light is good and the tourists less numerous. Indeed, the picture of El Roque with the Teide in the background is the most famous shot of the national park.

From El Roque, you can also see the llano (plain) of Ucanca, a hundred meters further down on the left. This plain of gray sand, the largest one that borders the wall of the Cañada, would be due to a small crater formed inside the big one. In winter, the snow accumulates here so much that in spring a lake of melt remains for a few days. In the middle is a small rocky hill called the Cathedral, the only island in this ephemeral lake.

After the parador, the road turns and descends into the basin of the llano de Ucanca. In the bend, the Azulejos, a Spanish term derived fromazul (blue) and referring to tiles, appear; they are rocks and sands of an almost metallic green due to the presence of iron hydrate. We then arrive at the Ucanca viewpoint, one of the most visited viewpoints in the destination due to its location and which offers a beautiful view of the eponymous plain, the García rocks and the Teide.

The route continues along the edge of the caldera, turning its back on the Guajara and heading towards the no less imposing El Sombrero (2,534 meters), the second summit of the wall. Be careful not to miss, on the left side of the road, the rocky arch of the Zapato de la Reina, that is, the "Queen's shoe".

Then we arrive at the Boca de Tauce, a gap in the wall of Las Cañadas at the foot of El Sombrero, into which the road that descends to Vilaflor and Chio rushes. Continuing on the road to Chio, we will discover the flow that escaped in 1798 from Las Narices del Teide. It is not a viscous flow made of large blocks like most of the lava flows of Teide, but a fluid flow of small black pebbles very light due to small vacuoles that testify the presence of gas during the eruption. In the background, Pico Viejo (3,135 m) and Teide present a dark face particularly beautiful at sunset.