If any place in Tenerife is worth seeing is without a doubt Las Cañadas del Teide National Park, created by the hand of nature after a huge crater was formed in earlier times in whose center rises majestically and challenging to local and foreign eyes the well-known Teide, considered as the highest mountain in Spain.

This visual treat accessible to all visitors from different places has been assessed as an impressive circle of rocks, peaks and craters shaped like a crown around Teide.

It is not daring or enigmatic to say that the overall look of this National Park recalls an unknown and desolate planet where the absence of any type of life becomes obvious.

This National Park offers one of the most spectacular volcanic sites worldwide and represents the best example of high mountain volcanic ecosystem in all the Canary Isles.

This jewel is the largest and oldest National Park in the Canary Islands and it is placed fifth in terms of surface extension among the thirteen existing ones in the National Park Network.

Next to its Protection Peripheral Area, this natural space is surrounded by the Forest Crown Natural Park with 46 612.9 hectares in size, which has become the largest protected natural space in all the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.

To introduce some variety into this peculiar atmosphere, small and useful recreational facilities have been placed in this area as well as look-outs where one can appreciate the magnitude of a place compared by many with the contrast of good wine, that is, the older it gets the better.

Among the look-outs are Roques de Ucanca or formations called the Queen’s Slipper, Tauce Mouth and others.

In 1989 it was awarded the European Diploma in its highest category A granted by the Council of Europe. This high recognition has been subsequently extended on various occasions.

THE PARK’S DETAILS

Creation: Decree of 22 January 1954

Reclassification: Act 5/81, March 25

Legal instruments: Guiding Plan for use and management (GPUM, Royal Decree 153/2002)

The Park’s surface: 18 990 hectares

Coordinates: Latitude 28º09´00´´ - 28º20´00´´ north

Longitude: 16º29´00´´ - 16º44´00´´ west

Maximum altitude: 3.718 m ( Teide Peak)

Minimum altitude: 1 600 m

The invitation is still on for you to visit this unparalleled site. With a little bit of imagination and much of reality around, you can be carried back to the past by means of an imaginary time machine and retrace your steps thousands of years ago along places that will for ever be printed in your memory for all the history contained in these surroundings and especially in Teide, with its 3 718 meters above sea level.