Roque Nublo
A two-hundred-and-sixty-foot monolith at the centre of the island, at six thousand feet.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 2 hrs 30 min
Difficulty
●●○○○
Best time
At sunrise or sunset
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Roque Nublo is an eighty-metre basalt monolith in the centre of Gran Canaria, at one thousand eight hundred and three metres. It is what remains of an old volcano's conduit: the lava set in the vent was harder than the cone around it, which eroded away and left it standing.
It was a place of worship for the Guanches, the island's aboriginal inhabitants. The climb from the car park takes half an hour on a steady path. At the top you see Tenerife's Teide across the sea, and the sea of clouds when it forms below.
Getting there
An hour's drive from Las Palmas on the GC-600, to the La Goleta car park. Thirty minutes of path after that.
What to bring
- Walking shoes
- Windbreaker
Rules on site
The car park is tiny and spills onto the road at sunset. The summit is windy and unsheltered, and it is far colder than at sea level.
