The third highest volcano in the world at 3,718 meters in altitude, Teide towers above the small island of Tenerife, the best known of the Canary Islands.
Teide National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, includes the entire mountain, and a trip inside the immense crater is a highlight of a trip to the Canary Islands. Inside the crater's rim is a caldera - the crater floor - 19 kilometers in diameter, and a drive across this barren moonscape is like driving into the center of the earth.
This crater is actually what's left of a much larger mountain that blew its top about three million years ago, collapsing into itself. In places, it left walls that rise 457 meters above the crater floor.
El Portillo Visitor Center is a good place to start, where an excellent little museum has interactive exhibits showing how volcanoes form and exploring the environment of the crater. Outside, a path leads through a botanic garden, where labels help visitors recognize and identify native plants they will see in the park.
To see the crater from above, and for wide-ranging views, ride the Teleférico cable car up Teide's cone, a newer volcanic peak that formed above the giant crater after the original top of the mountain slid off. Although the view from the cable car is outstanding, it can't match the experience of crossing the crater floor to see the varied remnants of the volcanic action: lava fields; jumbles of jagged, black lava boulders; dunes of lava pebbles; and outcrops of red, blue, yellow, and black volcanic stone.
Stopping points at various features have signs in English describing the flora and fauna and explaining the landscape, and walking trails lead to the highlights. Another great way to see the park is on a guided tour.
