I always thought our first time would be special, memorable. I mean, it’s a volcano! A dormant one, but you still want it to be exciting! Climbing a volcano for the first time should be a good story around the ole campfire. Right?
I blame Wikiloc (free trail site) for not specifically saying that this was indeed a hike up the side of a volcano. Well, actually, it was down the side of a volcano but we had to come back up since we parked the car on the rim of the volcano (facing directly into the crater). But seriously, let’s not focus on the small details here. We got out of the car, turned away from the crater and walked down the backside which was clearly not an obvious volcano slope. And the fact that we parked beside the sign that said “Caldera Los Marteles” is completely irrelevant. We were on a mission, a hiking mission. We succeeded 🙂
Have you ever heard about people that do things that are questionably stupid? Like unprepared hikers who fall victim to poor weather, dehydration, starvation, improper gear? Well…that’s sort of like us. It’s not like we’re inexperienced hikers, it’s more like we have a slight arrogance of invincibility. We reached the point where we’ve hiked so long that we started to get lazy about being prepared, because hey, if nothing went wrong in the last 10 years of hiking, it probably won’t go wrong this time either. I don’t recommend taking this attitude out on a hike with you. On the bright side, we’ve realized our laziness on the matter and have started to take hiking seriously again. However, our time hiking on Gran Canaria was a feat in pure laziness. Although nothing went wrong, we should have paid enough attention to actually know where we were hiking…like on the side of a volcano. I’m sure we would have noticed if it were an active volcano throwing ash everywhere though. Win!
Not only did we not notice that we were on the side of a volcano, we also didn’t realize we were hiking down first and then back up until we got to the parking area. The problem with this is that we were doing a 4.5 hour hike (that detail we knew) and we were starting at 1pm, which meant it would start getting dark by the time we were coming back up to the car so there was no time to rest. Down is always the easy part, it’s also the part where knees start to hurt. Coming back up with limited sunlight and sore knees was not so much fun. We had to haul ass.
Oh look, a sign. I wonder what caldera means in English? Rhetorical question, it’s volcano! Duh!
Back up we go into the setting sun
This was our first real “mountain” hike while on Gran Canaria Island. It opened our eyes to the diversity that this tiny island had to offer. During one hike we were able to see dry landscapes with Cacti merge into hilltop pine trees as well as low land greenery and flowers. This was just a tiny sample of what the island offered, we had no idea what the following 5 weeks on the island would show us!
Almond tree!! The flowers look the same as an apple tree flowers!
Every trail we hiked on the island had ruins and/or cave dwellings! Super cool!
I have yet to figure out if there are actual trail names for all the trails on the island. Everything just seems to reference the trail in a point to point fashion. This trail was Los Marteles Caldera to Rincon, click here for a link to more details.
What a weird rock, do you think it’s volcanic?
Oh look, that’s a weird looking farm field. Do you think it’s in a crater?
That black car in the background…that’s our car. This is the end of our hike, the moment we realized we just hiked up a volcano!
Have you ever hiked a volcano? Dormant or active. Tell us about it, we might need to add it to our “to-hike” list!
Jill is the founder, writer, photographer and travel agent at Chasing Adventure Travel. An adventure travel blog that has morphed into a travel agency, specializing in Active and Adventurous Travels.
Jill has traveled worldwide and spent almost 2 years traveling continuously with her husband. She has traveled to resorts, crossed an ocean on a cruise ship, motorcycled multiple times around Europe and experienced self-guided long term travel.
~ Dreamer, doer and energetic go-getter. Curiosity has inspired adventurous world travel. Imagination is everything ~
*Chasing Adventure Travel is in affiliation with Nexion Canada.
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- Adventure Guide: Hiking on Gran Canaria Island, Spain - February 16, 2017
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2 Comments
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We’re heading Gran Canaria this December… maybe we will hike volcano and won’t realize it as well… 😀 What time of year you’ve been there? Great photos!
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You will love it in Gran Canaria! We were there last December 🙂
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