Elevation of Vilaflor village:
4,593 ft. (1,400 meters)
Yep,
it looks like some planet, but
it's the magnificent Teide National
Park on Tenerife. [1]
The
most dramatic scenes on the
island are in the mountains.
Teide
National Park[3]
Traveling up the
slopes which are covered in Pine
forests you rise to the crater
of the long extinct and partially
collapsed volcano forming the
Las Cañadas Amphitheatre
and National Park with its spectacular
lunar landscape and the towering
Mount Teide (3718m) rising from
its heart. Dusted with snow in
the winter Mount Teide is the
highest peak in Spain, a cable
car takes visitors to within 100m
of the summit (weather permitting)
and views of all seven Canary
Islands can be enjoyed on a clear
day from the top. Once you arrive
and experience the pleasant all
year warm, sunny climate (which
is, not as severe as the Mediterranean)
you'll realise why the Canaries
are known as the fortunate islands.[2]
Walking through
the bizarre rock shapes of Lunar
Landscape ("Paisaje Lunar"),
one could easily mistake this
erie landscape for the moon.
Rising out of the ground like
large white termite hills, conical
rocks known as pumitas stand
out against the swathes of gray-black
moon-like terrain. Erosion has
molded these rocks into natueral
stone sculptures, some appear
like molten globules of lava
and others are teminiscent of
the spiralling pinnacles seen
at Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia
in Barcelona.
The lunar landscape is located
about six miles east of Vilaflor.
The 45-minute walk to the Lunar
Landscape is on a foreseted
footpath marked by white-painted
rocks. It affords good views
of the island's southern coast
and the outer rim of Las Canadas
crater. The first group of Lunar's
eroded stone columns are wide-based
tapering pillars topped by delicate
structures. From the nearby
second group of columns there
is a trail up to the black lunar
landscape of Barranco de las
Arenas.[4]
