We had not yet gone up to pay a visit to the volcano El Tiede that is the highest point on the island of Tenerife. So today, with weather forecast to be mostly sunny, we headed up from our place at sea level to hike up to the rim of the volcano, located just shy of 8,000 feet elevation. It was forecast to be cooler than normal here at sea level, at 68 degrees. So, we figured it would be chill up in the hills, so we dressed for cool weather. But we got that all wrong.
We climbed through the clouds and through a lovely village called Vilaflor, finding full sun and calm weather for our hike. It was lovely and warm. The terrain and vegetation of pine trees reminded us of Colorado. And just a short, very steep, very curvy drive from the beach.
What’s amazing is that you just begin to see the tippy top of Tiede from the trail just a hundred feet from the rim, and then the view opens suddenly to see the vastness of the old caldera and then the giant peak looming up thousands of feet above us. There is a cable tram that goes to the top, which you can see in the telephoto shot taken through my binoculars with my iPhone.
From the rim we hiked to the top of El Sombrero (there are many peaks named El Sombero in the area), had lunch at the top and then back to the car. About 5 miles, 1,600 feet of elevation gain. Stellar day! The next overcast day, we’re just going to go up in elevation to get some sun.
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