Tuesday, August 27, 2024 El Hierro, the wildest Canary Island, stands apart by embracing sustainability and preserving its natural beauty amidst the region’s mass tourism challenges. As protests against mass tourism continue to stir neighboring islands, El Hierro, the wildest and most westerly of the Canary Islands, has quietly chosen a different path. I had been hiking for only two hours, yet I had already traversed an enchanting forest of ancient laurels, their trunks wrapped in velvety moss and branches dripping with lichen.
The trails led me through lush ferns and up the black ash slopes of a volcanic caldera. Before me now was yet another breathtaking scene: the vast amphitheater of El Golfo, where brooding cliffs towered over a fertile plain and a rugged coastline pounded by turquoise waves. It was one of the most untamed and beautiful places I had ever encountered.
I was in El Hierro, a heart-shaped island off the west coast of Africa. It is the youngest, most westerly, and second smallest of the Canary Islands, formed around 1.2 million years ago from violent undersea volcanic eruptions.
This created a wild landscape of fertile valleys that give way to evergreen forests, towering cliffs, volcanic cones, and otherworldly badlands. What sets this tiny isle apart is its unique approach during a year when protests against mass tourism have erupted on neighboring islands and across Spain. El Hierro has chosen a different path.
With a population of just around 11,000 and .