Masca Valley Hike

If you are looking for a hike in Tenerief there are many, but one of the most popular is the Masca Valley it is about a 40 mile drive from the main airport on Tenerief. It is talked about in many of the local tourist brochures and can be found on the internet. We did our research and figured out that this was about a 5 mile hike one way to the bottom of a large valley that leads to the ocean from the top of the very high mountains surrounding the sea there. So we would have to walk 5 miles down hill first then back up the hill on the way out for a total of 10 miles round trip with the hard part last. This is backwards from a mountain where the hard part is firsts and the easy part is last.
The road to the Masca valley has 40 miles of the most winding narrow roads you have seen anywhere on the planet with some areas of exposure to cliff sides where the next stop in the car if 2000 feet below in the ocean should you miss the turn.

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

After a nerve racking road trip to the Village of Masca we found a parking spot along the highway and loaded our stuff for our trip into the village and the ultimate trip to the ocean down through the valley. The village is small and quit a tourist attraction since the village itself is a fantastically beautiful setting located at the top of the valley. It is almost a window into the past and looks ancient setting among the strange tropical desert vegetation of the valley.

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

To the hike: we find our way down through the village an manage to find a sign that points the way to the trail. As we get on the trail we find that there are many people (20-30) from a tour that are descending into the valley along with us.

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

As we make our way down into the valley the surrounding vegetation looks almost prehistoric

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

After an hour or so of hiking the easy trial down the upper segment of the valley gives way to boulder hopping and wading through a small river we started to follow.

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

As we wind our way through the deepest part of the valley the side walls reach thousands of feet overhead and we can only occasionally see the sky as we close in on the beach.
At last after 5 miles of a rough scramble of boulders and cliffs the beach!

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

But wait there is a boat waiting to pick up the tour group! Who forgot to tell us that you could ride back to the top! After trekking with the group all the way to the bottom and the hardest part is yet to come they are going to bail and ride back! Not fair!

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

So we sat and had lunch and watched the tour group load themselves onto the boat with tears in our eyes. We now have to climb the 5 miles back out! I sure am looking forward to the beer(s) on the veranda at the end of this hike!
I knew getting out was going to be tough but, it is proving to be tougher that I though.

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

At last we are out, and headed towards the veranda for that beer, but wait! We are exhausted can hardly walk anymore and we have that 40 miles of bad roads back to our hotel! Maybe two lemonades are in order instead of the beer I have dreamed about for the last five very uphill miles!

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

From Canary Islands Masca Valley

On the way out of the village we ran across a street vendor selling watercolor paintings of the village and we purchased a hand painted water color of the valley that almost identically matches some of the photos we took. How cool is that!