South of Gran Canaria, Andén del Zurrado in Barranco de Arguineguin ravine, circular route

If this pic gives you vertigo, don’t go

Well, I would like to start by expanding on the caption above. The main point of this hike, at least for me, was to see and walk a spectacular “Andén del Zurrado”, andén* being a pass or a path in a precipitous place, in this case with a strong emphasis on precipitous. There is no real danger, of which later, but if you have a fear of heights, it can get really tricky for you.

OK, warning done, back to the walk. A pic of Andén del Zurrado came up in Facebook and we started planning the walk immediately. The main problem of this walk is logistics, not the difficulty, once you are sure that everybody in your group can handle heights.

So, first problem, the transport. There is no public transport that come close to the start of the walk, at least I can’t find any. The nearest stop of Global is about 7 km out, so not a viable option.

West wall of Barranco de Arguineguin ravine. The orchards at the bottom of the pic are of orange trees.

Second problem, choosing the day. Although at least part of this walk passes under pine trees, the woods in the south of Gran Canaria are very sparse and don’t give much shade. In summer the heat could be suffocating, so wouldn’t walk this route in summer. Also, best avoid wet days, because rocks can get very slippery, obviously.

You can indulge your pareidolia, rocks and caves are only to happy to provide you with visual clues for interpretation.

Once the day is chosen and you are on your way, look for a space to park on your right immediately after you passed mark 19 km on GC505. There are at least three possible places which I spotted. The reason to park more or less there is to distribute about 2 km walking on the road between the start and the finish of the walk evenly. Having said that, the village immediately ahead, Barranquillo Andrés, will have a lot of possible parking spaces, and the route passes through it.

The path starts with a reasonably gentle ascent

Once parked, we’ve started to walk on the road backwards and downhill. As the route is circular, you also can walk upwards. It might even make more sense, of which later. While walking, we were looking for a sign of a path to our right. From where we parked, it was about 1 km. There were two arrows and two possible routes, ours was the one that said “Cortadores”, and the path that went up. Very shortly, there was a sort of T-junction in the path, which was the only point of possible confusion. We have chosen, correctly as we found later, the branch that went left, basically the same direction we’ve just walked on the road.

Andén del Zurrado, the star attraction of the walk.

Quite soon after this, about 1.5—2 km along the path, it brought us very close to a first vertical rock face, but it didn’t bring us to the narrow ledge under it, as we expected. There was a brief moment of panic — did we choose the wrong path? was the other branch the one we needed? yes, yes, let’s all ask each other... — but we decided to carry on along the same route. Very shortly, after we rounded an outcrop, the aim of the walk revealed itself in all its glory.

Isn’t it impressive?

At which point let me come back to the itinerary. We did the route clockwise. The advantage of this direction is that the first ascent is quite gentle. The disadvantage is that we did the Andén del Zurrado very soon after the beginning of the walk, about 3 km in. So, the star attraction was already done and there was still 8 km of walking to do. The disadvantage of the counterclockwise direction is that the initial ascent from the village is quite steep and starts very soon into the walk, leaving no time to warm up.

A closer look. And, btw, I find the mix of palm trees and pines fascinating, maybe because the pines for me are something from the north

About the Andén itself. As you can see in the pictures, there is a near-vertical wall on one side and a very sharp drop on the other. It is not very long, less than a hundred meters, I think. Most of its length it is more than one meter wide, narrowing ad absurdum at only one point. but even there there was no problem passing. We didn’t need to use out hands or anything. But let me stress once again — if you have a fear of heights, do not go. From time to time we read in our local press stories about people being rescued from various places, and at least some of those rescues are because hikers found themselves stuck somewhere panicked, unable to continue.

A look back. Not sure why are there rocks in that horizontal crack, but I sincerely hope they are not there to hold the upper stratum up

One more point. If you decide to strike a heroic pose on one of the loose rocks that are scattered along the ledge, test the rock first. They fall down, mercifully rarely, from the cliff, so they might be unstable.

Another look back. Barranco de Arguineguin to the right. Roque Nublo visible in far distance

After the andén was done, the ascending path brought us to a pass Degollada de Cortadores. There we made almost a complete U-turn, and started going along the upper edge of the valley wall, in parallel to a canal that carries fresh water from Presa de las Niñas. The stretch of the canal closest to the pass has a large-diameter tube inside, so we couldn’t see the water, but in a hundred meters there was no tube anymore.

Not very picturesque, but extremely important

Which reminds me. When we first came to the Canary Islands, I couldn’t understand the fascination of the locals every time they saw a little bit of freshwater anywhere. On Fuerteventura it is difficult to find in any case, and here on Gran Canaria it is also getting more and more scarce. When we just came, there were three places where freshwater was running freely — Barranco de la Mina, Barranco de Azuaje and Barranco de los Cernicalos. By now, the first one, Barranco de La Mina, has its water running in tubes. The owners of the water want to sell every last drop of it, and apparently there is no laws or regulation to prevent them from doing so. As a result, once-lush ravine is dying. The wildfire of 2017 ripped through it without any difficulty. There is an ongoing campaign to do something about it, but nobody seems to be very sure where to start.

Look into Barranco de Arguineguin. The road below making a hairpin loop is GC 505.
As you can see, driving here is not for fainthearted either. I was so happy I wasn’t the driver.

In about a kilometer after the Cortadores pass, there is a sign with arrows, and a poster with a map and information about the path. Not that we were in any doubt, but it always feels good when what you see confirms what your expect to see. By now we were aiming for the village Barranquillo Andrés. From this point the path gets very clearly signposted, although there is practically no need for it. There are arrows and low wooden posts with green rectangles on them.

More general view. Roque Nublo middle upper edge, light grey wall of Soria dam upper left quadrant

Speaking about the Arguineguin ravine. There is a very ambitious project — to pump desalinated water from the ocean to the Soria dam and to produce hydroelectric power this way. The power for desalination and pumping is supposed to come from wind generator fields.The problem with fresh water and the problem with storage of energy can, theoretically, be resolved at the same time. But, there is always a but. It is necessary to built a high-voltage line along the ravine, to start with. Ecologists are not too happy about it, and there is an ongoing struggle between them and the island council. And the local news reporting is so bad, I can’t even tell for sure if the project is approved, suspended or rejected. One thing is clear though — there is not a single electric tower in sight, so it is not executed, at least.

We had a bit of an argument almost all the way about which dam was it, as there are several in the ravine and its branches, but it is Soria, believe you me.

Another, or maybe even the same, water canal. Can’t be sure from the altitudes

At this stage there was only one path, quite wide and well maintained. It is mostly flat. There were some small landslides at some points, but when we went, the rubble was cleared away. At about 6 km from the start of the walk, there was a steep descent, quite slippery because of the small loose stones. After it, there came a short sharpish ascent, at the end of which we found ourselves going alongside a canal.

See a horizontal wall? It supports the canal. See a path going up? That’s ours

The path followed the canal for about 2 km. We were going in the direction opposite to the movement of the water, so we kept going up, very gently at this stage. At the end of this stretch, on the rock face to the left, there is a dragon tree. You can’t come close, so I didn’t even try to photograph it, but apparently it is Dracaena tamaranae, critically endangered species endemic to Gran Canaria. Keep looking up and you’ll see it.

Check out the wall. Spectacular, isn’t it?

After the dragon tree, a clear path went down to join a dirt track, only to branch up from it again in less than a hundred meters. Once again, very clearly signposted. This is the last bit of ascent on the route which lead us to the point called Piquillo. There was an information poster, where we finally resolved our argument about what dam was it. There is also a small curio — a dead pine trunk through which a hole was drilled. If you look through, you see the dragon tree you have just passed. I didn’t make a photo, but there is one in the link to wikiloc below.

Well, that’s it really. Soon after that we found ourselves heading down into the village along a well-signposted path and then back to the car. At the time we were at the village, about 14.30, a small bar next to the church was already closed, and a small grocery shop closed just as we were about to come level with it. In short, there was nowhere to have a well-deserved beer. But, luckily, we found an open bar in Cercanos de Espino, about 7 km along the road back towards the Arguineguin, so it all went well really.

It was one of the most spectacular walks I ever had on Gran Canaria. And that is saying something. If you ever go, hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Link to the wikiloc — here. Please note that the distance specified — 10.15 km — sounds about right, although my tracker gives me 11 km, but the accumulated ascent and descent, 1430 meters, have very little to do with the reality. Not sure how this number come about. My estimate is about 600 meters, but I didn’t measure it, just the feeling.

Just one more pic, for luck

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*I think the word comes from andar, to walk. Sorry, a folk etymologist in me just won’t shut up

Pictures of hikes on Shutterstock — here