Caldera Blanca — Local services in Tinajo

There is a trail that takes you on top of the Caldera Blanca. It’s free of charge. When you’re on the LZ-67, take a left turn before Mancha Blanca (or a right turn after Mancha Blanca if you come from the opposite direction). Take the dirt road and park at the end of it: the trail starts there. Be aware that once you get at the basis of the Caldera you have to go up right away... don’t start walking around it at ground level or you will get lost! There is a fork with no signs and you will have to turn right and go up the rocky walls of the Caldera. It doesn’t look like there is a path but there is! (When we arrived at the fork it looked like someone had tried to stop us from going the wrong directions drawing arrows and stop signs with rocks.) Once you get on top you are supposed to walk around the crater but it was too windy when we did it, so at some point we turned around. It is an easy walk/hike but I wouldn’t suggest attempting to walk around the top with kids when it is very windy. You can walk this trail with regular gym shoes but trekking shoes are better, because you’ll be basically walking on small rocks for the first part. Bring a sweatshirt even if it’s summer and it’s warm when you start walking.. it gets colder on top! And of course bring...

Wonderful hike and a must do for any walking enthusiast!! The car park is accessed by a dirt track which is very bumpy but only about 750m long so manageable if you drive slowly. Park anywhere seems to be the rule.

The path is rocky most of the way through the lava field and turns to a dirt track after about 2km. It's relatively difficult if you don't have good mobility and I wouldn't recommend for anyone with bad ankles or knees. Once you get to the first volcano we went off the main track to the left and started to climb up hill. That took us in a clockwise direction and over some very rough rocks. I'd recommend staying on the main path that takes you round anticlockwise as the climb is easier in that direction and descent easier also as it's less gravelly.

The views are great and it was lovely and breezy at the top which helped dry me off after a sweaty walk up hill. It's about a 250 m ascent if you go clockwise or about 300 m if you go anticlockwise as you start slightly lower. In total it was about 10.5km.

I've included a selection of photos and videos. Do not wear sandles and don't wear good trainers unless you want to...

Great to be allowed such a rare experience due to the fact that this volcano is not part of the national park, but located just outside it.

We parked the car at “Parking rando caldera Blanca” and started the trail from there. You need steady shoes for the whole trail.

First you have a long walk on the lava rocks. But this path is mostly flat and not too hard to walk through.

Shame that I didn’t read the other reviews carefully enough and we seem to have taken the more difficult path for the ascent to the Caldera. It was still doable and for experienced hikers it wasn’t difficult, but I felt stressed on the steep hill close to the very top with lots of slippery sand. Both going up and down was challenging for me and because of my height I had to almost climb in some places.

In the end it was a good workout with fantastic views as a reward but if we come again I would prefer the easier path.

I saw that some bloggers marked this trail as “easy” and most of it really is like that, but because of that part of the road I would mark the path we did as “moderate”. We didn’t go around the rim after that so I can’t...