Gran Canaria is a volcanic island with high mountains and many deep canyons and ravines, there are many interesting and spectacular rock formations.  The terrain you will be walking on is very variable, from grassy meadows in the North to barren scree in the South.  The condition of most of the paths is good, but they are not well maintained, on rare occasions you will have to clamber over a rock fall, or fight your way through a few bushes.

Camino Reales... Many of the footpaths you will be walking are old ‘Camino Reales’.  Camino Reales are old donkey tracks that used to connect villages together many years ago, before the advent of modern vehicles. Some have become rather overgrown, some have been restored, but others have become dirt roads or concrete tracks, and a few have now been asphalted.

Tree on Camino Real, near Cruz de Tejeda

Wherever possible I try to avoid tarmac roads in my walking Guide: 'Don’t leave Gran Canaria without seeing it' but there are a few occasions where to complete a circular walk some tarmac is unavoidable.
 

Hiking Maps

There are no Ordinance Survey type maps of Gran Canaria.  The maps I recommend are from the AA and Kompass, 1 to 50,000 series:

The Kompass 237 is the same as AA map in all ways except it has a German legend, the Kompass 237GB map has an English legend but amazingly seems difficult to buy in England - however this map can be bought in Gran Canaria at any good newspaper/magazine stockist.

From Spain or Europe the Kompass 237 map has an ISBN number of 3854911149.

Kompass include a booklet about Gran Canaria which is useful if not wonderful.  The German map has a German booklet, the GB version has the booklet in English.

These maps are not perfect, but they are the best available at present, a map should be purchased to accompany my Guide 'Don’t leave Gran Canaria without seeing it' to get the ‘big picture’ as my maps are only very local to give a rough guide of the route.  Always have a ‘Plan B’ in case of bad weather when you get to the start of a hike.
 

Satellite Views of Gran Canaria...

Google Maps & Google Earth are other good ways to get the feel of Gran Canaria and its mountains.  No footpaths are shown but they do show the network of small and larger roads across the island - start your journey at Tejeda, which is in the heart of walking/hiking country: