HIKES

The first El Pilar - Pino de la Virgen, starts from the refuge of El Pilar, to the south and goes north to the caldera de Taburiente. It's a trail that can be walked to the Pino. From there we can continue on to the Cumbre Vieja, which is much more beautiful. In the other direction, you can also continue the hike from the ridges of the caldera, in one or two days, with an extra day to El Pilar. In 6 to 8 hours, the route of Los Volcanes runs along the Cumbre Vieja where the main volcanoes that have erupted recently, that is to say in the last five centuries, are lined up. The route of Los Volcanes starts from the El Pilar refuge, at 1,450 m above sea level, to Fuencaliente, at the southern tip of the island. To the north, the first volcano on the ridge is Tacande, whose flow can be seen on the way up to El Pilar. First we reach the crater of Hoyo Negro, which is aptly named the "black hole", and then the crater of Duraznero, which still smells of sulphur: both craters belong to the San Juan volcano, which caused the penultimate eruption of the Canary Islands in 1949. A little further south, we reach the old volcano of La Deseada, the highest point of the ridge at 1,950 m, and then we descend, leaving Mount El Cabrito to the east.
Finally, we arrive at the Martin volcano whose reddish crater was born in 1646, causing lava flows on either side of the ridge, one of which descends to the east coast. Inside the crater there is a permanent spring. Access is difficult. You can also finish the hike one hour before Fuencaliente by leaving a car at the end of the track that goes towards the Martín volcano, or the track that crosses the Volcanoes Road. Without being part of this route, the Martin volcano can be reached by a short walk from one of the two trails that end the hike before Fuencaliente. These cumbres are also accessible by car, for la Cumbre vieja, the path between Santa Cruz and El Paso passes under la Cumbre Nueva, through the Cumbre tunnel. We thus leave the white cover of the east coast to find ourselves, on the other side of the Cumbre tunnel, under the sun that rarely leaves the Aridane plain. On the way down to El Paso, the road follows the lava field from the Tacande volcano in the years 1480-1490, just before the Spanish conquest. La Cumbre Nueva can be covered by following a dead-end track that starts from the El Pilar hut, to the south, to the north and the Taburiente caldera. The landscapes are fantastic and less known by tourists than those of the caldera.