A Night out in Tenerife - A Wild Camping Trip

Video of an overnight hiking trip in the west of Tenerife 

Download the Caldera walk

 

The route of my recent walk in the Las Cañadas caldera can be downloaded from the Wikiloc app or from this link. The GPX file can also be downloaded from the link. 

Walking in the Caldera, Tenerife

 

A collection of video clips taken on a recent walk in the spectacular Teide National Park in Tenerife

Climbing Baracàn from Puerto de Erjos, Tenerife

Video of a recent walk to the summit of Baracàn in the Teno 

Montaña del Cedro and the Barranco de Tàgara

 

Montaña del Cedro 

The sun was just rising over the mountains of Las Cañadas as I climbed out of the caldera towards the summit of Montaña del Cedro from the Narices del Teide mirador. Having reached the summit, the views were simply spectacular with a 360 degree view that included Teide and Pico Viejo, Las Cañadas with the lava fields of the Las Narices eruption in 1798, the three western islands, the Teno Mountains  as well as Playa de Las Americas and the west coast. After a break on the top, I headed very steeply downhill and into the Barranco de Tàgara. The path in the barranco was a real 'Indiana Jones' job, with many large fallen pines blocking the trail, as well as fallen boulders and overgrown foliage. The climb out was a little better, but not much, as the path was again overgrown and strewn with boulders and the top of the path had been destroyed by a landslide. Once out of the barranco, the walk, although steep at times, was much easier with clear paths to follow. Despite the difficulties, the stunning scenery made this one of the most memorable walks I have done recently. 

A Visual Feast - Las Cañadas & the Orotava Valley

Any walk in the Las Cañadas National Park guarantees spectacular scenery but when this is combined with aerial views across the Orotava Valley, the awesomeness factor increases significantly. Setting off from El Portillo Alto, I followed the well worn path towards La Forteleza, which I always think of as Tenerife's Ayers Rock in miniature, until I reached El Cabezòn. As I walked in the early morning sunshine, I enjoyed the stunning views of Teide completely dominating the view to my left, as it stood silently surveying the desert-like scenery I now passed through. As I reached a crossroads in the path below the summit of El Cabezòn, I turned off of the main path and descended into the forest, initially on a wide track then later on a narrower, more ill-defined path through the trees.Arriving on another broad, level forest track,

Getting up Teide's nose - a hike to Las Narices

Earlier this year, I set off early morning for a hike to Las Narices del Teide, or the Nostrils of Teide. This is the site of the 1798 eruption on the flanks on Pico Viejo, the summit of which is the second highest point on the island. I was following a path that I had never walked before called Sendero 9 and it turned out to be quite an awful slog on a steep path of deep, loose picon and rubble. The views of the crater at Las Narices and the surrounding mountains were superb however and I even had the added bonus of spotting a flock of wild Mouflon mountain sheep off in the distance. The following is a video I made of my hike. 

Climbing Guajara, one of Tenerife's Highest Mountains

Montaña Guajara, at over 2,700 metres high, is one of Tenerife's highest peaks and is an exhilarating climb giving stunning views of the Las Cañadas National Park and Teide. In January 2020, I set off early on a freezing morning for a solo climb to the summit. Having set off at around 8am, I had the mountain to myself and enjoyed the peace and quiet as I ascended to the remains of the world's first ever astronomical observatory on the summit. This is a video I made of my climb.  The route can be downloaded from Wikiloc HERE

Download Trails to your device with Wikiloc

Many of my hikes are recorded using an app called Wikiloc. This is a useful tool that allows you to follow walks recorded by other walkers as well as recordng your own, all on your smartphone. You are also able to send files to a Garmin handheld GPS device as well as downloading GPX files to a laptop for free. A data signal is not required if you are using a phone, just make sure that your phone's GPS is switched on (usually called 'location', or similar) and put the phone into airplane mode to preserve battery for the duration of your walk. If you want to download walks directly to your phone from the app, a small subscription is required. It is possible to check your position on a walk by checking the blue dot on the map. When you have finished your walk, simply save it and select 'private'. Once back home, you can add a description and photos before changing the settings to 'public. The app can also be set to alert you if you stray off of the route you are following. Photos and waypoints can be added to a route as you walk. My Wikiloc hikes can be found on this link 

Cloud Drifting Over Teide

A short video clip taken from the Degollada de Mesa

The Canal de Vergara & Black Mountains

A video taken last week from a hike and overnight camp on the edge of the National Park. I hiked up from Chio late afternoon and pitched my tent just as the sun was setting on the edge of the Teide National Park. The stars were incredible! The following morning, I got up in time to watch the sun come up and hiked to the summit of Montaña de La Botija for some stunning views before hiking back down to Chio. 

Climbing Montaña Blanca in Tenerife

Yesterday's walk took me from the lower cable-car station to the summit of Montaña Blanca, which is a hill on the flanks of Teide reaching just over 9,000ft in altitude. The path is signposted from the roadside below the cable-car station and is easy follow as it passes through the awesome, other-wordly landscape of the Las Cañadas National Park. Crossing the road at the small Montaña Blanca parking area, I joined the crowds of people heading up towards the start of the Teide path. The initial trail is a fairly easy, steady climb on a wide track in incredible scenery with views across to La Foretleza and the bulk of Teide looming above. Soon, the path passes the Huevos del Teide or Teide Eggs. These huge boulders are giant accretion balls, formed as they rolled downhill on slow moving lava flows and gaining in size like huge snowballs. Soon, I reached the split in the path where the path to Teide turned right and I watched the line of people heading up into the cloud that had now formed on the volcano as I headed left to the top of Montaña Blanca. The views from the top were superb but there was a very cold wind blowing so I didn't linger long before turning and heading back.

A Las Lajas circular walk

Montana Colorada

Las Lajas is a campsite and recreation area sitting at around the 7,000ft/2,100mtr altitude on the main road from the south of the island to the Teide National Park. I set out on this walk on a beautiful morning and headed for a path contouring around Montana de Las Lajas and descended a very steep, slippery and eroded path enjoying the stunning views towards the south coast and to nearby Montana Colorada.

A walk from Chio along the Canal de Vergara

This weekend, I walked from the hill village of Chio in the south-west of the island and climbed 1,000 metres before descending to the Canal de Vergara. This was a continuation of walk I started a couple of years ago when I hiked to the source of the water channel in the Barranco de Vergara on the northern slopes of Teide and then followed the water channel for many kilometres, sometimes hiking on top of it.

Montaña Sámara & the Las Cuevas Negras

View from the summit of Montaña Sámara

This walk was a new route in an area that I had intended investigating for some time so I was pleased to find details on the web about a new path leading from Montaña Sámara to the Cuevas Negras, a series of lava tubes just off of the path in the volcanic landscape below the slopes of Pico Viejo. There is a convenient car park just below the Montaña Sámara cone and after parking the car I was soon climbing up the cinder path to the summit. The views from the top were simply stupendous and far-reaching to the summits of Pico Verde and Pico de Gala in the Teno range with the twin summits of the island of La Palma in the clouds beyond providing a fitting backdrop. 

Las Cañadas to Poris de Abona - A walk from Summit to Sea

The 'El Filo' path is a route in the Las Canadas National Park that starts from the TF24 road close to El Portillo and initially follows a broad track through the desert scenery of the park as it weaves through the Tiede Broom and heads towards the parador. I recently set off on a two day hike following the path as it wound it's way through the parched landscape typically found in this part of the park. Being summer, the weather was very hot and as I could not be sure that I would be able to replenish my water supplies, I carried around 7.5 litres in my pack, which made it quite heavy when combined with my camping gear.

Walking through the Island's Volcanic Past

Montana Samara

I have recently been exploring the area between Montana Samara and Montana Chinyero, site of the island's last eruption. The north-west Santiago rift is littered with many volcanic cones and makes the area a fascinating one for observing the recent volcanic history of the island. I parked at the Montana Samara car-park and followed the obvious path to the summit where I had fantastic views towards the Teno Mountains, Teide and even down towards the south-west coast. 

Climbing El Sombrero

El Sombrero from the start of the walk

Since living in Tenerife, I have long had an ambition to climb El Sombrero, a very distinctive mountain in the National Park. The mountain is instantly identifiable because of the rocky, 'turret' on the top but until recently, I have never found a route to the summit. 

Teide and the Canal de Vergara

Start of the Teide path

This week, I completed a two day hike starting on the Teide path before crossing the Las Canadas National Park and descending into the pine forest and finishing in Chio in the west of the island. Starting out on the Montaña Blanca - Teide path, I followed the route uphill for a short distance to around the 8,200ft mark where a path veers right to the visitor centre at El Portillo, which I followed for a few moments before leaving this for a path to La Forteleza. 

Climbing the caldera

Teide & Mt.Guajara from the caldera rim

One of the advantages of living in Tenerife is that it is possible to decide what type of walk you want to do, pick an area and within a short space of time, find yourself enjoying exactly the type of walking you want, such is the diversity of the terrain. This happened to me recently when I decided on a fairly strenuous high altitude mountain hike, so I drove for around three quarters of an hour to the Las Lajas campsite and recreation zone above Vilaflor for a hike onto the caldera rim.