Parque Nacional del Teide Sights

  1. Pico Viejo

    With a name meaning 'old peak', Pico Viejo is the last of Tenerife's volcanoes to have erupted on a grand scale. In 1798, its southwestern flank tore open, leaving a 700m gash. Today you can clearly see where fragments of magma shot over 1km into the air and fell pell-mell. Torrents of lava gushed from a secondary, lower wound to congeal on the slopes. To this day, not a blade of grass or a stain of lichen has returned to the arid slope.

    Read more about Pico Viejo

  2. Roque Cinchado

    A few kilometres south of the peak, across from the parador, lies this geological freak show of twisted lava pinnacles with names like the Finger of God and the Cathedral. Known as the Roques de GarcĂ­a, they are the result of erosion of old volcanic dykes, or vertical streams of magma. The hard rock of the dykes has been bared while surrounding earth and rock has been gradually swept away.

    Read more about Roque Cinchado