Hiking on São Miguel: the official trails, Rocha da Relva, Salto do Cabrito, and which walk to choose

São Miguel has 32 short trails in the official Azores register, and you will not walk them all. Three things decide which ones fit your trip: whether the walk loops back to your car, how high it climbs into the cloud, and how much of your day is already spoken for by Sete Cidades, Lagoa do Fogo or Furnas.

This guide skips the crater-rim walks at Sete Cidades and the climb to Pico da Vara, which have their own articles, and spends its space on six others: a hamlet of vineyards under the cliffs, a hydro valley with a waterfall, a lakeside circuit, water tunnels above Lagoa, a hot spring on the western tip and a level path along the north coast.

Every official trail has a page on trails.visitazores.com with its length, grade, a description of the route, a leaflet and a GPS track you can download as GPX or KML. Closures are marked there too. None of the pages for the trails below carried a closed notice or listed a fee or a booking requirement when we checked on 6 October 2026. Look again on the morning you walk.

The official pages give a length and a grade (easy, medium or hard). The walking times below come from the trail register data. Add time for photos and for mud.

Codes tell you the shape of the walk. PRC means a circuit that ends where it starts. PR means a linear route: either you walk back the same way, or you need a lift or a taxi from the far end.

A 5.6 km walk, graded medium, about three hours. It starts on the road above the south-west coast, west of Ponta Delgada, and goes down to Rocha da Relva, one of the few debris fajãs on São Miguel: a strip of flat land at the foot of the cliff, built from rock that fell from above.

No road reaches it. The path drops past wine cellars and vineyards walled in basalt, which protect the vines from sea spray and keep the air around them mild. On the way you pass summer houses, orchards, fountains and a small shrine to Nossa Senhora dos Anjos, and you may meet the donkeys that still carry goods up and down for the people who live there. A side path leads down to Rocha do Cascalho by the sea, about 600 metres from the first turn, where there is a resting area and, in calm water, a place to swim.

The official description calls it a round trip on the same path, so everything you walk down you walk back up. That climb is where the medium grade comes from. Please do not pick fruit from the gardens; the trail page asks walkers not to.

An 8.6 km circuit, graded medium, about three hours, starting and ending at the Caldeiras da Ribeira Grande, the hot springs above Ribeira Grande on the north side, where there are bathing facilities and a restaurant.

The theme here is water and the power it once made. You follow a penstock towards Lombadas, take a short detour to the Fajã do Redondo dam, and go down a road lined with Japanese cedar to a disused hydro plant. From there a metal walkway and a steep stairway lead to the Salto do Cabrito power station and the waterfall it is named after. You have to walk round the building to see the fall. The way back passes the Pico Vermelho geothermal plant and crosses two streams; the second, the bigger one, has a suspension bridge.

The steps and the metal walkway can be slippery when wet. If you want to see inside the old Fajã do Redondo plant, the official page says to call the operator, EDA Renováveis, in advance.

A 9.4 km circuit, graded easy, about three hours. It starts in Furnas village near Largo das Três Bicas, passes the Santana church and the Poça da Dona Beija pools, climbs Pico do Milho for a view over the valley, and then goes all the way round Lagoa das Furnas. Along the shore you pass the 19th-century Gothic-style chapel of Nossa Senhora das Vitórias, the José do Canto garden, the environmental interpretation centre and the fumaroles where the cozido is cooked in the ground. The official page also points out what it calls the largest classified Norfolk Island pine in Europe.

The grade is easy because much of it is a flat dirt road along the water. The last stretch back to the village follows the regional road, so keep to the edge. Our Furnas guide covers the hot pools and the cozido if you are making a day of it.

A 7.6 km circuit, graded easy, about two and a half hours, from the Casa da Água trail point at Remédios, in the hills above Lagoa. The building was once a milk collection post and now serves hikers.

The route follows the water that used to run down to the old alcohol factory in Lagoa and now supplies the municipality. You walk through tunnels, past a catchment house and along the Ribeira Seca stream to the Janela do Inferno, a vertical wall full of springs with a cavity worn by water. The pool at its foot holds newts at every stage, from larva to adult. The return crosses a row of aqueducts and passes through a last tunnel about 50 metres long, which used to carry water itself. Bring a torch for the tunnels.

If you want a full day, PR42SMI, the long version of the Rota da Água, runs 15.1 km from Remédios to Água de Pau, graded medium, about five hours.

A 3.6 km circuit, graded easy, though the register gives it about two and a half hours, which leaves time for the climb at the start. It begins at the Ilha Sabrina viewpoint on the western tip of the island. The name remembers an island that rose about 6 km off this coast in an eruption in 1811 and was washed away by the sea within months.

From the top of Pico das Camarinhas, a cinder cone, you see three craters lined up west to east, which is how a fissure eruption leaves its mark. The path then goes down to the lava platform of Ponta da Ferraria, with arches, a pseudo-crater and small fragments of deep rock caught in the basalt. At the end is a natural pool in the ocean fed by a hot spring, where the official page says the water is above 30 °C at low tide. That temperature depends on the tide, so check the tide table before you set off.

A 6 km linear walk, graded easy, about two hours, with almost no climbing. It follows the north coast from the Poços de São Vicente bathing area, next to the ruins of an old whaling factory, through Fenais da Luz and past the 16th-century chapel of São Pedro, to Calhetas, where it ends at the church of Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem, built in 1728.

A little further on is the hole of São Pedro, an odd rock formation on the coast. The official page warns about the risk of falling there, so keep children close. Because the route is linear, arrange a taxi back or walk it as a 12 km out-and-back.

• The crater rim at Sete Cidades (PR03SMI Vista do Rei and PR04SMI Mata do Canário) and the only trail down to Lagoa do Fogo (PR02SMI) are in our Sete Cidades and Lagoa do Fogo guide. The Lagoa do Fogo trail page asks walkers to keep clear of the nesting gulls on the shore in April and May.
• The Salto do Prego waterfall (PRC09SMI Sanguinho) and Pico da Vara (PRC07SMI), the island's highest point, are in our Nordeste and Povoação guide.

• One easy walk with something at the end: Ponta da Ferraria, timed for low tide.
• A morning, and a car parked where you start: Lagoa das Furnas or Janela do Inferno.
• A place you cannot reach by car: Rocha da Relva, if your knees can take the climb back.
• Waterfalls and old machinery: Salto do Cabrito, then a soak at the Caldeiras.
• No car, or a rest day: Vigia de São Pedro, with a taxi from Calhetas.

On a day when the interior is under cloud, all six of these stay at or below about 400 metres and are still worth walking.

How many official trails does São Miguel have? 32 short trails (PR and PRC) on trails.visitazores.com, as of October 2026.

Do I have to pay or book to walk them? No fee or booking was listed on the trail pages we checked in October 2026. The hot pools and the summer shuttle to Lagoa do Fogo are paid separately.

Which trails are circuits? Of the walks in this guide, PRC29SMI, PRC06SMI, PRC37SMI and PRC43SMI loop back to the start. PR20SMI is an out-and-back on the same path, and PR01SMI ends in another village.

What should I bring? Proper shoes with grip, a rain layer in any month, water, a torch for the Rota da Água tunnels, and the GPS track from the official page. In an emergency, call 112.

• Trails Azores: São Miguel
• Rocha da Relva (PR20SMI)
• Caldeiras da Ribeira Grande - Salto do Cabrito (PRC29SMI)
• Lagoa das Furnas (PRC06SMI)
• Rota da Água - Janela do Inferno (PRC37SMI)
• Pico das Camarinhas - Ponta da Ferraria (PRC43SMI)
• Vigia de São Pedro (PR01SMI)
• Lagoa do Fogo (PR02SMI)