Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma High Point
View to Tenerife from Roque de Los Muchachos
Roque de los Muchachos
English Translation: “Rock of the Boys”
Significance: Highest point on the Island of La Palma, Canaries, Spain
Elevation: 2,428m
Date “climbed”: February 23rd 2025
Coordinates: 28° 45' 15'' N, 17° 53' 5'' W
Start / Finish: Small parking area at Mirador de Roque de los Muchachos, Ctra. al Roque de los Muchachos, 38788, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Distance: 1.3 km (0.8 miles)
Elevation Change: +/- 84m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other Routes Touched (walk): GR 131 El Baston
Cafe / pub on route: None, nearest refreshments are vending machines at the Observatory Visitors Centre
Map: La Palma Tour & Trail Super-Durable Map (David Brown)
Guidebook: La Palma and El Hierro Walking Guide (Sunflower Guides)
Links: Wikipedia (La Palma, Roque de los Muchachos), Peakbagger,
At the end of February we always escape the UK winter to go somewhere warm for Timea’s birthday. The Canary Islands have been a good choice for us for winter sun and we’ve been working our way through them one per year. As well as a bit of relaxation we always attempt to tick off each island’s highest point. Unfortunately, often due to weather, we’ve missed out on a few of the summits. That’s why I was excited to see that you can drive to La Palma’s highest point. I wasn’t completely sure that we would reach it though. My friend Joel had visited the island 6 weeks before and the the access road was closed. The weather was on our side with no issues getting to the top.
While you’re there, it’s well worth visiting the space observatories located near the high point. We booked a 90 minute tour with Ad Astra which included a tour of the Gran Telescopio Canarias, the largest optical-infrared telescope in the world. The high point is a 10 minute drive from the Observatory visitor centre.
The main thing to know about the car at the high point is that it’s very small and gets very busy, especially right after the Observatory tours. We made a point of leaving the Observatory Visitor Centre straight after the tour had finished to get ahead of everyone else. The car park was full when we got there but we only had to wait a few minutes to get a space. Those that came after us had to wait on the tricky hair-pin bends for spaces to become available. We found the guy at the top in the hut to be especially unhelpful at managing the traffic so Timea had to get out to be an unofficial car park supervisor. Without that nobody would have got in or out for ages.
Once parked you’ll find the Trig Pillar at the northern edge of the lot with great views across to the observatories. From here you can take a 1.3 km out-and-back walk down to the Mirador del Espigón del Roque. We were especially lucky as it was a clear day and we had views across to Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro.
