Las Peñitas Arch and Ravine Route

The Las Peñitas Ravine with its impressive Las Peñitas Arch is one of the most spectacular and less explored corners of Fuerteventura. Although the island is famous for its beaches and waves perfect for surfing, this enclave offers a completely different experience, far from the typical tourist postcard of sun and sand. While it is true that lately has been gaining fame the Arco de las Peñitas, because of the typical photo of instagram which is really impressive.

In this article, we are going to reveal all the secrets of the area, showing you how to get there to the Barranco de las Peñitas ravine and where to start the route to the Arco de las Peñitas, which is not very well signposted. Join us in this adventure that will take you through one of the most original and beautiful landscapes of the island.

How to get to the Barranco de las Peñitas ravine

To start both routes, the first thing to do is to go to the area of the Las Peñitas Ravine The route starts from two different points: the first one is from Fuerteventura, an enclave of Fuerteventura that seems to be taken directly from Mars with those reddish rock formations. The routes can be started from two different points:

• From the area of Buen Paso, where there is a parking at the end of a dirt road.
• From the village Vega de Rio Palmas.

We started our adventure from the Buen Paso area, leaving the car in the parking at the entrance, whose location We leave you marked on the map below. Getting to the entrance of the ravine is not difficult, most of the way is on a well paved road until you reach a parking lot where you have to leave the car.

The first thing we found when we left the car was a palm oasis that looks like something out of a desert movie. There is also a fenced area with different types of native plants.

Las Peñitas Arch Route

Once there, we decided to go first to see the Las Peñitas Arch (route marked in orange on the map). You will see that this route is a bit of an adventure as it is not well signposted at all, so be warned!

At this point, the first thing you have to do is to look for a abandoned house and try to find the beginning of the path that runs perpendicular to the Barranco de las Peñitas. Once you have covered about 300 meters you will see that the path gets a little lost, it begins to slope and you will have to go almost climbing among rocks using hands and feet. The truth is that we ended up pulling a little bit of google maps to get to the arch, thank goodness the location is good!

After a walk of 40 minutes Approximately, we arrived at the arch in the middle of the mountain sculpted by wind erosion and it couldn't be more impressive. With a height of more than 20 meters and a width of about 10 meters, it is the perfect frame for all your photos.

🏃‍♂️ For the most adventurers!
The arch seems to us the perfect frame to contemplate the sunrise or sunset. However, be careful not to go there at night because the road is not the best.

For the return, we tried to do it by a different way than the way out but we do not recommend it, the views do not change too much and it is much more uncomfortable to get down.

Las Peñitas Ravine

Once back, after spending some time enjoying the Arco de las Peñitas, we headed towards the Las Peñitas Ravine as such. What we did was to return to the parking area to access the ravine, as we tried to access directly from the road down from the arch but did not see the way (zero indications).

Our idea was to do the entire route that goes all the way up to Vegas de Rio Palma which you can see in the map below, but we were late and in the end we only got as far as the las peñitas dam. The complete route can be done in about 2 hours, while our version shortens it to 1h round trip.

Las Peñitas dam route

Starting at the parking lot, this route runs along a path perfectly marked with a stone path on the left bank of the ravine.

The first thing you will find on this route is a white hermitage that contrasts with the arid landscape of the ravine La Peña Hermitage The Virgin of La Peña, patron saint of Fuerteventura. We recommend you to enter because it is a tiny place (it will not take much time) and super curious, full of offerings and guest books with promises. It is always open and admission is free.

Following the road, in about 30 minutes you will arrive to a abandoned dam since the high level of erosion of the island caused it to be almost completely covered with sediments in a few years.

As we mentioned, it was getting late and we decided to turn around and return the same way. The only change we made was at the end of the ravine, which we decided to do in the middle instead of on the road because it saved us a piece.

Map with the route of the Arco y Barranco de las Peñitas

Here is a sketch of the location of the Buen Paso parking lot and of the two routes that we did. If you have wikiloc there are also quite a few tracks that you can follow, for example this.

If you want to read other articles ideal for your trip that complement Las Peñitas Arch and Ravine Route you can visit our posts about Fuerteventura.