Mirador Cruz Grande

The Degollada de la Cruz Grande is a mountain pass cutting through the southern crest of Gran Canaria, and it offers two opposing landscapes from the same spot. To one side opens the Caldera de Tirajana, a great depression where erosion has laid bare the oldest geological materials on the island: Risco Blanco stands out stripped among the silhouettes of the Rompeserones ledges and the Sepultura del Gigante. To the other appear the Chira basin and the Pinar de Pilancones, Canary pine on the heights and flats such as Sequero, El Sitio and the Llanos de Madrid cut through by ravines.

The viewpoint sits on the GC-60, the road climbing from San Bartolomé de Tirajana towards the summit, and it is a junction of ancient tracks: the Ruta de la Plata passes here, an old transhumance route linked to the Way of Saint James that joins the north and south of the island. That is why it works as a trailhead for the walks heading up to the summit and for those dropping into Pilancones. The territory belongs to the Gran Canaria Biosphere Reserve and to the Parque Natural de Pilancones, refuge of the great spotted woodpecker and the blue chaffinch, and archaeological sites shelter under the ravines, among them Rosiana, Los Sitios and the Fortaleza de Ansite. You are high up here, so it is cool and windy even when the coast is baking.