CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From La Laguna it runs 347 km to La Laguna; allow about 6 h 51 of riding. On the way it passes Teide National Park, Garajonay National Park and back through Teide National Park. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 56 km this is Teide National Park Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
La Laguna was the first Spanish colonial town not built behind walls, and its plan, a grid of straight streets around open squares, became a model for towns in the Americas. It was founded in the late fifteenth century, after the Spanish conquest of Tenerife, and for centuries it was the island's capital, with a cathedral, convents, a university from the eighteenth century, and tall houses with carved wooden balconies. UNESCO listed the old town in 1999. The city is cool and often misty, because it sits at about five hundred metres on a plateau where the trade-wind clouds gather, and the fine drizzle that drifts in from the north-east is a local fixture.
Read the complete San Cristóbal de La Laguna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Cristóbal de La Laguna is where the day begins. Next is Teide National Park.
Spain's highest mountain is a volcano standing in the middle of an island in the Atlantic, and that alone makes Teide worth the ride. It rises to 3,715 metres above sea level, and from the ocean floor it is one of the tallest volcanic structures on Earth. The national park around it, listed by UNESCO in 2007, is a high desert of pumice, lava and strange rock towers, set in an ancient caldera, the Cañadas, and the road across it is among the most extraordinary on any motorcycle map. The Roques de García, a cluster of twisted, wind-carved pillars, stand in front of the mountain like a stage set.
Read the complete Teide National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Teide National Park comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Garajonay National Park.
Mist is the main character in this forest. On La Gomera, one of the smallest of the Canary Islands, the trade winds blow clouds against the mountains in the centre of the island, and the trees comb the moisture out of the air so effectively that a damp forest stays damp all year. The Garajonay National Park, which covers the high ground at around 1,400 metres, is one of the best remaining stands of laurisilva, a type of subtropical cloud forest that once covered much of southern Europe before the ice ages. Moss hangs from the branches, lichen covers the trunks, and the light has a green, underwater quality. UNESCO listed the park in 1986.
Read the complete Garajonay National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 172 km into the recorded legs you reach Garajonay National Park. Next is back through Teide National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Teide National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Teide National Park, late in the day. Next is San Cristóbal de La Laguna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Cristóbal de La Laguna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at San Cristóbal de La Laguna. That is the ride.
San Cristóbal de La Laguna → Teide National Park is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Teide National Park → Garajonay National Park is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Garajonay National Park → back through Teide National Park is 120 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Teide National Park → San Cristóbal de La Laguna is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.