After Las Lajas we continue climbing but soon the road levels out and we even descend as we now enter the crater of Teide. This is the Teide National Park and given that Teide is an active volcano, last eruption in 1909, it is an interesting place to be. It is also the highest point in Spain with an altitude of 3,715m at the peak.
The Roques de Garcia hike is very popular and parking is at a premium so we take a recommendation we saw online, to stop at Llano de Ucanca viewpoint and take a trail from there that is quite easy and flat. And also no shade which in the heat makes it a bit difficult to go far, we decide to just go to a nice view of the rocks and then return.
To our surprise there are both a few birds like canaries and even some butterflies on the scarce vegetation. And there are some nice views of Teide, we can see the cable car going up that we can’t take as you have to book in advance and it is very expensive.
The Roques themselves are impressive but still not as impressive as we expected given the glowing reviews. At least we see a few of the Teide endemic plants and then we decide to return to the car and move on.
We now stop at the official parking just a couple kilometers away to visit the visitor center. It is quite a modern one with lots of interesting exhibits both about Teide and Tenerife.
There are even a few Guanche mummies under our feet, they look quite special and we hope that we will be able to see actual ones at a museum in the capital.
And then it is time to move on, we are planning to pass through the whole national park with only one more major stop planned, at the other end of the park where the other visitor center sits.
