Tag Archives: Santa Cruz de Tenerife

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).

And those pillars of lava I mentioned? Here’s an example:

I’ll finish today with a little photo gallery/slide show of shots taken at this location:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Today I’m taking you on a photo journey to an alien landscape. We’re now deep within the Teide National Park (Parque Nacional del Teide), an area of lava fields from the tallest peak of any Atlantic Ocean island — Teide volcano (12,188 feet/3,715 meters). We’ll begin with images from the area of the park known as Minas de San José. Here’s the view heading out on foot southbound from our parked bus:

Remnants of the lave field are in evidence everywhere:

In the above scene I found the outcropping to the left particularly fascinating, so I zoomed in for a closer look:

From the road Teide volcano is hidden, but it reveals itself after only a short walk. Turn around and look west for this view of Teide:

What initially blocks your view of Teide is another lava outcropping, so let’s head back over to the other side of the road and take a look at that:

One last look back before we load up on the tour bus and head for our next stop:

Back aboard the bus we now head out to a place in Teide National Park called Mirador de la Ruleta (Roulette Viewpoint). You’ll see more of that fascinating place next Monday (this week’s Fun Photo Friday will concentrate on another Tenerife destination). So, until then, I’ll whet your appetite with these two preview shots:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)