Las Cañadas del Teide

This walk, which is No.4 on Teide National Park's network of trails although it is a dirt track, takes us deep into the secrets of the volcanic cirque known as Las Cañadas del Teide, whose sheer rock walls are like scars left by the different stages of the formation of the Las Cañadas edifice. The various layers reflect the history of over three million years of volcanic activity.

The walk is part of the famous "Camino de Chasna" (Chasna Way), known today also as route GR-131 and used in ancient times by Tenerife's earliest inhabitants. Later settlers continued to use it for moving their herds of livestock, hence the Spanish name “cañadas" (pastoral paths), of which there are seven up here: Cañada de Diego Hernández, Las Pilas, La Angostura, Las Grieta, El Montón de Trigo, La Mareta and El Capricho.

We begin our walk on the northern side, departing from the visitors' centre at El Portillo. After crossing a first barrier we join the trail and keep to this for the entire duration of the walk. After fifteen minutes we come to a second barrier which is easy to negotiate.

Thirty minutes later, at the foot of the rock wall of Las Cañadas, we will see a wide variety of geomorphological formations. These include strips of black basal lava close to the Cañada de Diego Hernández (the first in the series of Cañadas) and yellowish materials formed by acidic magma given off during particularly violent eruptions.

Depending on the time of year we do this walk, we will have the opportunity to observe the different flowering periods of the park's plant life, including red bugloss (Echium wildpretii) and the abundant flixweed (Descurainia bourgaeana) that forms a dazzling yellow carpet along our route. After walking for two and a half hours, we reach the Cañada de La Grieta and on the right will see the interesting ruins of shelters used by herdsmen of old when travelling constantly trom the north to south of the island and vice versa.

Four hours into the walk and as we near its end, we come to the only uphill section. Particularly striking here is the Cañada de El Capricho and its beautiful forms, a landscape fashioned in the shadow of Guajara Mountain, which rises up to an impressive 2712 metres and fully deserves the use of the word nuge to describe it.

Soon after, almost like an oasis in the distance, we will see the busy services area and La Ruleta viewpoint next to the Teide Parador Hotel, where our walk ends.