Transatlantic 2022 — Tenerife; Teide and Mirador de la Ruleta

This next area was our last stop in Teide National Park, and it was a doozy. Here the landscape was home to more flora than we’d seen elsewhere, but what really grabs one’s attention are the tall spires of ancient lava thrusting into the sky. But before we pulled into this turnoff, we were greeted by a quaint little chapel, Ermita de Nuestra Señora de las Nieves (Hermitage of Our Lady of the Snows):

Notice the lovely, bright yellow vegetation in the picture above? Here’s a closer view of descurainia bourgaeana, which blooms in April and May (these shots were taken on 8 May 2022):

The turnoff into this area is called Mirador de La Ruleta (Roulette Viewpoint). Last week and this we’ve photographically traveled together in the area of the park known as Las Cañadas crater. The base of Mount Teide volcano rises from this ancient caldera. On Wednesday I’ll show you images of an even deeper portion of this ancient crater taken from this viewpoint, but today I’m concentrating on the formations standing guard and the plants adorning this area. As for the area itself, below is a portion of a map of Teide National Park. Today’s photo stop, Mirador de La Ruleta, I’ve marked with a red circle and pointed to it with a black arrow (lower portion of the map, right of vertical center). In case you’re wondering about last week’s photo stop, Minas de San José, I’ve done the same for that location (right side of map, above horizontal center).