Teide National Park, Tenerife

Teide National Park is on the island of Tenerife.

Teide National park is an area of  awesome, rugged beauty. Mount Teide is over 3,700m high and is the third highest Spanish peak. It reaches 7,500 m above sea level making it the third highest volcanic mountain in the world -  you can imagine the views from the top are amazing. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its diversity of volcanic features and its spectacular setting.

Teide National Park covers 19,000 hectares. Originally there was an even bigger volcano here. This exploded millions of years ago forming the eerie landscape of Las Canadas, also in the park. The crater is 16km wide! Large, jagged, rocky structures line the rim.

Mount Teide is an active volcano and is listed as the 13th most dangerous volcano in the world as it is close to several large towns and the city of Puerto de la Cruz. It is, however, currently dormant and last erupted in 1909.

It is quite a drive to get to the National Park but certainly worth the effort. Once there you can take a cable car to the top. From there you get great views of the other islands of the Canaries, as well as the lunar landscape of the park. Mount Tiede is often covered in snow and the walk around the crater is sometimes closed due to snow and ice.

Los Roques de Garcia in the Del Teide National Park  photo by Dmitry A Motti (photo copyright)

If you have no head for heights it is still worth driving to the park. A road crosses the park allowing you to see Las Canadas and gets to just 1km below the tip of Mont Tiede.

There is a Parador in the park. The Parador de Canadas del Teide. Excellent for those of you wanting to experience sunset falling on Mont Teide. Well worth it!

Near the Parador are the 'Los Roques de Garcia', see photo, these incredible structures, reaching up to 150m high, have been sculpted naturally by the weather.