• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Updates

View Sample Route Map

Walk 1

Santa Cruz and Lomo de las Nieves

Distance                          8, 11 or 19km (5, 7 or 12 miles)
Start/Finish                     Santa Cruz or Santuario de las Nieves
Total Ascent/Descent     410, 1180 or 1590m (1345, 3870 or 5215ft)
Time                                 2hrs 30mins, 4hrs or 6hrs 30mins
Terrain                             Roads, tracks and paths at lower levels. Narrow forest paths and rocky tunnels at a higher level. Some stretches unsuitable for vertigo sufferers.
Refreshment                   Plenty of choice in Santa Cruz. Bar at Las Nieves.
Transport                         Buses run regularly between Santa Cruz and Santuario de las Nieves.

This figure-of-eight route naturally offers a choice between a short circuit from Santa Cruz to Santuario de las Nieves and back, a longer walk from the Santuario, up the Barranco de la Madera, through tunnels and back downhill, or an even longer walk that uses both options.

Route includes PR LP 2.2 and PR LP 2.3 Start at the Barco (ship) on Avenida de las Nieves in Santa Cruz. Walk straight up the road and bear left up steps. Turn left at the top then right as marked up Calle A Rodríguez López. Turn left at a crossroads along Calle Tabaiba then climb steps as marked, past a tangled mass of mixed scrub. Turn right up a road then quickly right up more steps. Climb a road, turn left along Calle Olén, then right up a narrow path signposted PR LP 2.2.

A level path, based on an old water channel, crosses a steep and scrubby slope overlooking the town centre. It is fenced as it crosses cliffs, looking down into a barranco full of high-rise buildings. Step down to a path junction and turn right uphill for the PR LP 2.2. Climb between old sugar mills piled on top of each other. After zigzagging up past them, follow the path further up the old water channel along a scrub-covered ridge, passing a tangled mass of pipes.

Climb a concrete road past a few houses, curving right to reach a junction. Turn left up a concrete road and walk straight ahead to a tarmac road bend. Walk straight up the road and quickly exit left up another concrete road, joining the road at a higher level. Turn right and left to follow a road up past the Restaurante Los Almendros. Walk round a bend and turn right along a path signposted PR LP 2.2. This is stone-paved but vegetated, steepening to become stone steps below a cliff. Reach the Molino del Remanente beside a complex road junction and tunnel. Walk towards the tunnel and turn right down a steep bit of road underneath the main road. Turn left to walk parallel to the main road up to a church and tree-shaded plaza at Santuario de las Nieves.

For the longer route, walk behind the church and down steps between it and a bar restaurant. Walk down a road and cross the main road near a tunnel mouth. A narrow road climbs from a car park into Barranco de la Madera. A concrete path and track climbs past bananas then turn left up a stony track. Stay on it and avoid turnings, climbing higher into forest, often with a pipeline alongside. Pass beneath a very high pylon line, walk beside an overhanging cliff and enter the Parque Natural Las Nieves.
 

There is no mistaking the way ahead, past patchy laurisilva among pines and scrub, and another overhanging cliff. At a higher level the track makes a sweeping zigzag and ends at a building. Keep climbing beside a pipe or water channel in dense laurisilva. Walk along a rocky ledge beneath another overhanging cliff, unsuitable for vertigo sufferers. Climb again and go through a hole in a rocky buttress. Climb past a tunnel mouth and the path crosses the barranco and climbs a densely forested slope. Cross a scrubby slope and drop, then climb again and cross the barranco between sheer rock walls, around 1000m (3280ft).

Enter a tunnel to follow a water channel. A torch is useful, but isn’t essential as there are lots of rock ‘windows’. A narrow, fenced path leads to another tunnel, which is longer and has more windows. Another narrow, fenced path leads to another tunnel with windows. The next stretch out in the open is quite long, then there is a little rock arch, followed by another long stretch of path. The last tunnel is fairly short, but watch for boulders inside.

The path emerges and leads to a water regulator, then drops and zigzags steeply on a forested slope. First it overlooks Barranco de la Madera, then Barranco del Río, as it switches side to side down the Lomo de las Nieves. Pine forest has a laurisilva understorey, giving way to cistus and rock rose further down. Pass a pylon and leave the forest to pass a little house beside big eucalyptus trees. Cross a concrete track and go down a path veering away from it, leading back down to the Santuario de las Nieves. The short walk continues from here.

Just across the road from the church, a cobbled path is signposted as the PR LP 2.2 Ruta de los Molinos. This was followed earlier, parallel to the main road, so follow it back to where a bit of road runs beneath the main road. Turn left as signposted for Santa Cruz, following a track down the Barranco de las Nieves. Cross the barranco again and again as marked and signposted, past a smelly farm. A patchy road crosses later and is followed to a main road. Turn left down the main road towards a tunnel then left down a slip road as marked, under the main road and tunnel mouth. Simply walk straight down Calle Leocricia Pestana, down Avenida M Gonzalez Mendez, turning right to cross a bridge over the barranco, then left down the other side. Pass a wider bridge to return to the Barco in Santa Cruz.