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In the centre of the park, Los Roques de Garcia , a line of huge, bizarrely eroded, top-heavy rocks, stands proud in an otherwise flattened landscape. Most visitors to the national park stop here, but few make the rewarding two-hour circular hike around the rock formation, which is well worth the effort for its imposing views of Los Roques themselves and the more recently solidified streams of lava nearby. Even at peak times, when the car park is bursting with visitors, you're unlikely to encounter more than a couple of other walkers on the loop. Formed from magma that has been forced through near-vertical underground cracks, Los Roques are volcanic dykes which have solidified into walls of rock. This cooled magma, much harder than the surrounding rock, has been left standing proud while the softer material around it has eroded away. The same process, here with the softer rock forming a horizontal layer near the base, created the precarious look ing, top-heavy Roque Cinchado at the centre of the group. The subject of hundreds of postcards, this rock, with Teide as its background, has become a near obligatory photo opporutnity for park visitors. Unfortunately, during the day the crowds tend to hamper a good shot of the rock, but by sunset, when the light is at its best for photos and people mostly absent, the rock's grandeur and rich brown colour can be appreciated in peace. The hike around Los Roques begins by heading out of the car park in the direction of Teide, starting an anti-clockwise loop that allows the steep loose slope to the car park at the end to be climbed rather than descended. The route follows a well-trodden path to the northernmost rock in the line and then dips down to follow a rougher trail back down the other side of the landforms. Finally, beside the spectacular geometric patterns of the massive rock monolith " La Catedral " the trail returns steeply back to the car park.
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