Pino de Casandra

This pine is named after a girl who may never have existed. Legend says Casandra, fifteen years old, was burned at this tree. There is no official version of the story, and Gran Canaria's own tourism board says plainly that nobody knows whether any of it is true. Locals have a second, kinder name for it, the Pino Bonito, the pretty pine. What is certain is the tree. It stands above the Presa de las Niñas reservoir in the pine country of Tejeda, inside the Parque Rural del Nublo, and the Cabildo's catalogue of singular trees puts it at over 380 years old. The tourism board rounds that to four centuries. It is 25 metres tall and 5.30 metres round at chest height, with a crown about 30 metres across. It has come through several fires and lightning strikes, and it shows. The trunk carries a large burn scar and the whole tree has grown into a shape nobody would call regular, which is most of its appeal. In August 2025 the Cabildo began a plan to water it and improve the soil around its roots, and it is marking out paths under the crown to limit trampling. Keep to them. There is parking and a picnic area by the dam, and the tree is a short walk away. Getting here takes about an hour and a half by car from Las Palmas, with no practical bus.