Hiking at Roque de los Muchachos - La Palma

Today there's a short walk on the schedule on the edge of the Caldera de Taburiente. From El Paso in the middle of La Palma we drive via the north in the direction of Puntagorda. We take the road north to Hoya Grande and from here the road LP-113 towards the astronomical observatory. We park our car at the viewpoint Los Andenes. From here we walk towards the Roque de los Muchachos. When we get out of our car a large part of the Caldera de Taburiente is covered in clouds. We hope the weather will clear a bit and start walking anyway. the hiking trail is fairly level on the edge of the Caldera and only the last section contains a climb of about 100 meters. The trail is well maintained and pretty soon we arrive at the astronomical observatoru. Towards the north of La Palma we have a good view of the coastline. The view to the south is a bit less, clouds are trapped in the Taburiente. We continue towards the Roque de los Muchachos and arrive at a large parking area. We have reached the endpoint of this hike. During lunchtime this is a spot where a lot of touring cars stop to hand out lunchboxes to tourists. We sit down on a rock somewhere to eat our sandwiches and enjoy the view. Because the warm air rises and cools, clouds are forming along the walls of the Caldera de Taburiente. This gives a spectacular view! Unfortunately we don't have a good view of the Caldera and sothern La Palma, these are covered in clouds.

After lunch we walk back the same way to our car. More and more clouds are forming around the trail and by the time we reach our car we are walking in the fog. The trail is still clearly visible, but the view over Parque Nacional Caldera de Taburiente is something we'll have to miss today.

Distance: about 6 kilometer
Height difference: 150 meters climbing and descending

Observatorio Astrofisico

The astronomical observatory at Roque de los Muchachos is owned by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). Two telescopes that are at this Observatorio Astrofisico are manned by dutch and british universities. On the website of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias you can find more information. The telescopes at an altitude of 2300 meter have little interference of polution in the air. The air at this altitude is thinner. The data is processed in Santa Cruz.