The Anaga massif is the oldest exposed landmass on Tenerife, a six-million-year-old shield volcano whose basalt ridges and deep barrancos predate the Teide complex by three million years. Erosion carved vertical gorges through layers of phonolite and trachyte, leaving narrow corridors where endemic laurel forest clings to shaded walls and mist rolls inland from the Atlantic twice daily. The park holds nineteen named canyons suitable for technical descent, most requiring rappels between fifteen and thirty-five metres over waterfalls that run year-round from the cloud belt above. Canyoning Anaga Tenerife tours concentrate on two accessible gorges: Barranco de los Arcos near La Orotava on the northern flank, and a network of tributaries within the central massif reached from Cruz del Carmen. Los Arcos offers five rappel stations over a two-kilometre descent, the longest drop a thirty-metre abseil beside a permanent cascade that feeds the Orotava valley. The canyon walls expose columnar jointing in dark grey basalt, remnants of submarine eruptions during the Miocene. Endemic species line the route: Canary laurel, tree heath, and the rare Anaga daisy, which blooms only in vertical crevices above six hundred metres. The central Anaga routes thread through the Reserva Integral, a UNESCO Biosphere core zone where access is permitted only with licensed guides. These descents are narrower, darker, and wetter, with water temperatures holding at fourteen degrees Celsius even in summer. All canyoning in the Rural Park of Anaga requires a permit issued by the Cabildo de Tenerife and held by accredited operators. Solo descent is prohibited. The rock is young by geological standards and prone to fracture; fixed anchors are inspected quarterly and replaced on a five-year cycle. Rainfall patterns determine seasonal difficulty: winter storms between November and March double flow rates and shorten the rappelling season to experienced groups only. Spring and autumn offer the widest weather windows, with stable conditions and mist cover that keeps air temperatures below twenty-five degrees during the descent. Most guided tours begin at eight or nine in the morning to allow a three-to-four-hour canyon traverse before midday heat reaches the lower valleys. The sport arrived in Tenerife in the late nineteen-nineties, imported by Spanish alpinists who recognised the island's gorges as year-round training grounds. Early descents were exploratory, with climbers rigging temporary anchors and hauling gear up dirt roads. By two thousand and five, permanent bolt lines were installed in Los Arcos and the first commercial operators began running weekly trips. Today the park hosts around four thousand guided canyoning descents annually, most concentrated in the April-to-October window when Atlantic depressions weaken and the trade wind cloud lifts by mid-morning.