Are you in for a treat? If yes, you should definitely visit one of the most beautiful natural habitats in northern Fuerteventura, which, oddly enough, never made it to the most popular list: Montaña de La Arena and its badlands, Malpaís de la Arena.
Important: This hike is not available from February 15 to July 31 as the trail is closed for bird nesting season.
Montaña de la Arena is a very interesting green volcano between Lajares and La Oliva. It’s the youngest volcano on Fuerteventura, with only 10.000 years, while the rest go back to even 20 Mio years. It gives its name also to the badlands surrounding it – “Malpaís de la Arena,” the lava fields that occupy around 12 square kilometers.
If you’re in the mood for an easy hike, more or less on the flat terrain, you can take this 5 km trail around the volcano. If you are walking with open eyes and lots of curiosity, you’ll encounter many interesting things – spectacular rock formations, hidden caves that were once inhabited, and some of the most authentic and even endemic flora and fauna on Fuerteventura. Malpaís de la Arena is a fragile area and an officially protected natural monument, so stay on the trail and not roam around.
You don’t have to be super fit to make it around. However, if you wander off the trail, you’ll soon find yourself surrounded by rough terrain, lava rocks, slippery sand, and all the rest of the territory.
If you are tempted to hike up the 120 m volcano (420 meters above sea level), you might get a bit frustrated since the trail is quite hidden and not easy to find. A bit of additional effort will be well worth it; the top is spectacular, with great views, two craters, and the possibility to walk around (without a proper trail, it’s a wild walk). Although a volcano hike is fairly easy, I wouldn’t recommend it to vertigo-prone people.
In any case, the flat terrain ground-level circular volcano hike is an easy and beautiful experience in itself. It will take you around 1-2 hours to make it around, and you’ll be rewarded with an impressive landscape that will change its face a couple of times along the way.
Malpaís de la Arena hike info:
Duration: 1-2 hours in total
Difficulty: easy; you can also do it with kids, partially on the gravel road and partially on the hiking trail, mostly on the flat terrain, without hiking up the volcano.
Requirements: easy hike, also for beginners and kids; bring water and sunscreen; hiking shoes are recommended, but you’ll be OK with sneakers, too; please, be respectful to the endemic flora and fauna.
