La Palma Mountain Biking Trails

La Palma, also known as La isla bonita (English: The Beautiful Island) and officially San Miguel de La Palma, is the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. La Palma has an area of 708 square kilometres making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The total population at the end of 2020 was 85,840,of which 15,716 lived in the capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma and about 20,467 in Los Llanos de Aridane. Its highest mountain is the Roque de los Muchachos, at 2,423 metres (7,949 ft), being second among the peaks of the Canaries only to the peaks of the Teide massif on Tenerife.

In 1815, the German geologist Leopold von Buch visited the Canary Islands. It was as a result of his visit to Tenerife, where he visited the Las Cañadas caldera, and then later to La Palma, where he visited the Taburiente caldera, that the Spanish word for cauldron or large cooking pot – "caldera" – was introduced into the geological vocabulary. In the center of the island is the Caldera de Taburiente National Park; one of four national parks in the Canary Islands.

An eruption at the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, comprising the southern half of the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, lasted from 19 September to 13 December 2021. It was the first volcanic eruption on the island since the eruption of Teneguía in 1971. At 85 days, it is the longest known eruption of a volcano on La Palma.

The eruption has caused the evacuation of around 7,000 people, and the lava flow has covered over 1000 hectares. The lava flow is about 3.5 kilometre (2.3 mile) wide in its widest point, about 6.2 kilometre long (3.9 mile) and has reached the sea, destroying more than 3,000 buildings, cutting the coastal highway and forming a new peninsula.