The main goal on Gran Canaria was to ride as many different roads as possible. All you can ever really do is go up towards the peak in the center and then back down some other road…

The harbor town where the ferry lands, as seen from the coastal road.

This road has the most amazing views of the whole island in my opinion.

Further away still. There's almost 30km of this view before you are forced inland.

Soak it in

Oh no, not tunnels. I didn't know what was in stores for me on Gran Canaria.

Turns out this is a very bike-friendly tunnel. Huge shoulder, perfectly lit. Gran Canaria is made for cyclists.

Whatever this is, please don't touch my bike.

Took a break in a random village. You're never very far from a place to stop and refuel on this island, at most 20km.

Start of the ascension inland. It's just pure Nevada-like desert at this point.

This busted up steep road snakes inside a canyon and takes you to a series of dams.

It was hot and arid as hell, in sharp contrast with Madeira and Tenerife... I had no fear of getting rained on that day.

Very characteristic craggy peaks all over this island. It's just a series of huge canyons running along the Volcano's peak.

You can go inside this little fort and there are even some sketchy stone stairs if you want to climb to the top. I did not.

About 1000m up there was a little village with houses build into the rock.

Lot of errant cats here too.

Water stop in Artenara. God it was hot.

Lots of lookouts and art installations in this small town.

Around 1400m elevation here. You can see how dry the climate is on this part of the Island.

Going back down you can see Teide peaking out of the clouds almost 100km away. It just looks like it's floating in the sky.

Town of Atalaya, built on some kind of volcano-looking thing that may or may not explode soon.

Back at the airbnb. The 2 guys I was staying with are so euro they just had a Jambon aging on the counter.

This loop is on the north-facing slopes of the Island and you can see how green and lush they are in contrast to the west.

Look at all this grass. What is this? Scotland?

One thing Gran Canaria has a lot of is old catholic churches. Like. A lot.

This one in the village of Teror. I get why people go there, it's got a very charming old city feel and is mostly closed to cars.

Look at the tourism. Look at it!!

Look at these suckers just waiting to pay 5$ for bottled water. Did I mention tap water is not really drinkable in Gran Canaria and Tenerife?

Got a mini muffin with my coffee. So damn euro.

It was nice to take a break and just watch people for a bit.

Further down is the.... pretty similar village of Firgas. Equally touristy. There's like 10 of this place on the Island.

Further down in Arucas you can find the towering San Juan de Bautista. You really can't miss it.

It stands out quite a lot due to it being the only Ghotic church I've seen in the Canaries. Looks very out of place.

Shitty picture of the endless Banana plantations you pass as you descend to sea level from Arucas.

More coastline riding! Good break from the heat as well but you have to ride on the highway... Kind of sketchy.

Gran Canaria has a lot of great beaches and water activities. Awesome if you just want to go be a fat tourist cooking in the sun next to water.

Spain Rank #12 - Pico de Las Nieve from Telde

Actually riding up to the peak today from my new Airbnb in Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria. I took a 60 euro cab because I was lazy but I could have just taken a 10 euro bus. The extensive bus network of Tenerife/Gran Canaria makes it sort of pointless to rent a car, despite that always being the number 1 suggestion on vacation sites.

It’s like people don’t even want to bike 1900m up a mountain to take a picture. Guys. Come on. It’s not that hard.

One thing about these islands is almost all the buildings are small and look run-down. Just looks poor outside of the fancy resort centers.

First stop is the Caldera de Bandamas. It's about 1km wide! Really worth a look, though the road is pretty busted and steep.

Random chickens just existing in the middle of the climb. Wtf. Rooster just screeching at me. Dude go home what are you doing?

Start of the climb. Back to a relatively arid landscape "near" the coasts.

About 1500m up on the climb you pass by The Caldera de Los Marteles. Also huge and worth stopping by!

I think this one is called "Roque del Pino" located on the opposite side of the Caldera.

Made it to the Pico de Las Nieve! Check out the thick smog further down around Gran Canaria. Gross.

Hi

Military leaving all their shit on the best spots.

The car crowd stepping on each other to take a picture of the peak they painstakingly conquered. What an adventure! Driving for like an hour! Time for a Cervesa.

Going back down. Just not that great a view and always this lingering smog.

Almost all the towns here have nicely decorated roundabouts and each town has a bronze sculpture like this doing different jobs.

Stuck in socc...er FUTBOL traffic while going back to Las Palmas city center. There were thousands of these yellow shirt people, it was crazy.

Day off the bike. Just a bunch of errands like figuring out car rental ( mistake ) and visiting the Aquarium!

How historical downtown looks. Honestly everywhere kind of looks like this here.

Kind of hard to read, not gonna lie.

Following the road along the coast. So many boats.

Even Batman's boat is here.

There's a huge mall near the aquarium as well as some more modern buildings. However for the love of fuck don't plan on driving in that chaos.

Tons of sculptures around the harbor area. Very geared towards tourism. Only one hobo.

Reconstruction of one of Columbus' ships.

West side of the city has a nice beach.

Picking up 3 "toogoodtogo" orders at hotel buffets. Literally one is sausages from those cans at the grocery store. Fancy! lol

The low-key aquarium building. It's pretty huge and close to the bus terminal for easy access without a car.

First section is a jungle with hundreds of pterosaurs hanging from the ceiling. Starts off real strong!

They have basically every Amazon / Jungle type fish you can think of. Some crocodiles, turtles etc. Yuge.

Lil chameleon hanging out.

Tank with a bunch of Axolotl, the creature that wishes for death.

These are cool fish that can breathe air and waddle on the ground to move from a drying pond to a deeper one during dry season.

A half human, half mermaid. Very rare.

The big feature is this massive aquarium filled with sharks, rays and large fish of all sorts.

There's a bunch of comfy seats and classical music playing. Very relaxing.

Bull shark. Probably.

These little river fish swim with their eyes out of the water so they can see their prey. Nerds.

There's a bunch of prehistoric stuff sprinkled around the aquarium.

Always like dinosaurs.

The typical guilt-trips. Plastic bottles don't teleport in the ocean, some douche throws it in. Find that douche, stop harassing me.

There's another large circular tank about 10m tall in there.

This guy was huge. God I need to eat him so badly.

$These pictures are just a tiny fraction of what's in there, they truly have an impressively diverse collection. Worth checking out but a little pricey.$

These pictures are just a tiny fraction of what's in there, they truly have an impressively diverse collection. Worth checking out but a little pricey.

Hi

I named him "Euroguy".

Here's why not to drive here: There's no fucking parking. Anywhere. People leave their car in random spots that sometimes block circulation just because there's just nowhere else to go. Horrible.

Spain Rank #10 - Pico de la Nieve from Carrizal

Hardest climb of the Island and 10 hardest in Spain. They got pretty creative with mapping the way up to the peak with this one… The first half is pretty brutal, with lots of twisty back roads that reach grades of 20%. There’s even a little bit at 25% in there.

The start passes through a town going the wrong way on one-way streets.... Wtf

Not too many pics until the peak as I just tried to do it fast in one shot. Got 2nd! Because almost nobody goes up this stupid way.

Roque Nublo, the "cool rock" of the Island. You'll see it from just about every angle as you climb up.

This guy just had enough biking for one day.

Little better visibility that day but still the smog. Must be nice on a clear day.

"Shortcut" road I wanted to check out going down. "Unpaved" can mean a lot of things for Strava. This is like a donkey trail or something, I'm not going on that.

Like on Tenerife, all the rocks are full of holes and caves. Good place to stop if it rains.

Some cool peacocks.

The eastern coast in Gran Canaria is WINDY AS BALLS.

Another rest day… This is why I rented the car, to drive to Puerto de Mogan and do my submarine trip! I could have just taken the bus a bunch. Yah it’s way slower and more annoying but also 200 euros cheaper.

That's the little sub! Had to do it, where else can do ride in a sub?

Inside you can just sit in front of a window and plug in headphones that play classical music and tell you about what you're seeing. Very corny. I don't care.

Hi.

There's tons of fish around and they swim up to the windows and follow the sub. They're curious ( rhymes with delicious ).

You'll see 2 shipwrecks and a bunch of artificial reefs, going to a depth of 24m.

The harbor / town are nested at the base of these huge desert cliffs on the southern tip of Gran Canaria.

Very nice! Again a hugely touristic area here with endless gift shops and overpriced "authentic cuisine" cafes and restaurants.

Spicy ride today, biking to Puerto de Mogan ( where I was yesterday ) and going to the peak to do the “top loop”. Gotta collect all the roads!

A few of these resort towns/ retirement communities along the coast. Old people hives basically.

There's even an aquapark in one of these resort areas. Prepare to lose all your money.

Some of the coolest views climbing the barren landscape in the south. Boy is it ever dry here.

As close as I got to the Roque Nueblo. You have to hike about 1.5km on dirt to get next to it and take your Instagram selfie. I am above such things.

You can see it was starting to get cloudy... and cold... as I was doing the loop around the peak. You're above 1000m the whole time.

It's interesting to see a diversity of landscapes as you get to look in all cardinal directions.

Coming back down due south. Really looking like the Grand Canyon here. Just crazy arid jagged ridges and mountains.

"Mirador Astronomico" located in the desert at about 450m elevation. Supposedly a world-class spot for stargazing.

Maspalomas, where my ( very shitty ) airbnb was. You can see the dunes peaking out from behind the city.

The dunes are right next to town, mostly surrounded by expensive hotels. But they're easy to access and pretty unique to check out!

"Aboriginal World" or something. Reminded me a lot of all the "museums" in the Canadian prairies. Oh the "Corn Museum" in this barn...wow...yes...

Just going up the way I came back down yesterday, basically.

This time though I stopped to peak at the camel park! How ghetto is it, really?

Super ghetto! It's a tiny ranch oasis in the canyon. There's maybe 10 of these camels tied to a post, having a shitty life. Probably worth skipping.

Just a random castle.

Coming back down again. Really strange rock formations in this canyon.

This huge fortress-looking rock has big caves you can visit with a tour guide.

Is that crazy?

Making my way back to Maspalomas in the wind tunnel valley again...

Last bit of the day was a loop up to this rich people area with houses on isolated rock formations, like a bunch of James Bond villains.

That road passes by Palmitos Park, which is heavily advertised on the island. They have dolphin / bird shows. It's pretty far and not super cheap so I passed on it.

Last look back inland as the storms were starting to come down towards me.

There we go for Gran Canaria riding! It has a very unique landscape, tons and tons of cyclists and pretty good road surfaces for the most part with lots of places to do pit stops, making the arid weather probably manageable year-round. Better riding here than Tenerife and Madeira, but mainly due to not getting constantly threatened by rain and fog.

If you’re looking to do a training camp I’d say Gran Canaria is equally as worthy of consideration as Tenerife.

More travel stuff:
Arizona/California: Drive to Tucson • Tucson • California Climbing • Bay Area / Washington
Canada Coast to Coast: Victoria •Vancouver Island • Vancouver • Southern Rockies • Prairies • Ontario • Niagara • Quebec • Gaspesie / PEI • Maritimes • Newfoundland • Maritimes2 • Bay of Fundy • Quebec2 • Montreal • Ontario2 • Prairies Statues • Jasper/Banff • Northern Rockies • Washington State Bonus

Car Conversion / Purchase: Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
Life on the road: Part 1 • Part 2