About Cascata da Pedra da Ferida
Pedra da Ferida (or Cascata da Pedra da Ferida) is a somewhat hidden waterfall tucked in a gorge within the Serra do Espinhal between the town of Espinhal and the village of Louçainha.
It is where the Ribeira da Azenha dropped about 25-32m in cumulative height over a couple of tiers, where the main upper drop actually segmented into a double-barreled drop.
Of course, in times of higher flow, that dual segment might consolidate into a singular, wider tier.
However, in times of high flow, that might also present other challenges in terms of accessing this waterfall, which I’ll get to later.
As you can see from the photo above (and in the rest of this page), we saw the Pedra da Ferida Waterfall in what I would consider “normal” flow, which happened in mid-June 2024.
I can see later in the Summer that the falls may lose more of its vigor so in terms of timing, the early Summer seemed to be the best of both worlds in terms of stable weather and water volume.
Accessing Cascata da Pedra da Ferida
I considered this waterfall to be “hidden” because we first had to follow a fairly extensive, narrow, single-lane, unpaved road from the town of Espinhal to the trailhead (see directions below).
While the town had a charming and sleepy characteristic on its own, the road access was a bit rougher though still doable by passenger vehicles with care.
We did notice that some people did choose to do the longer walk from Espinhal to the waterfall (about 2.4km away), which gives you an idea of both the proximity of the town as well as bumpiness of the unpaved road.
Once at the trailhead, we were in a very different environment, where we were surrounded by trees and bush as the gorge carved out by the Ribeira da Azenha closed in even more (seemingly creating its own microclimate of subtropical native greenery).
As for the hike to the Cascata da Pedra da Ferida itself (said to be 650m according to the signs, but my GPS logs suggested it was more like 1.2km each way), it seemed like there were two main sections of note.
The first part (called Parque de Merendas or “picnic park”) was a tame, well-established, and mostly flat trail alongside the Ribeira da Azenha Creek with quite a bit of family-friendly infrastructure along the way.
Such infrastructure included some picnic tables, at least 9 sanctioned accesses of the creek for some water play, and even a “masterpiece theater” (i.e. a giant frame that you could take a photo to share with other people).
There were also water mills flanking both sides of the creek in this section that were mostly intact, and was said to have been used in the bread making process.
These mills were an important part of life in this area at a time that it was necessary to coexist with the environment to survive and thrive.
While the seemingly friendly infrastructure seen at the beginning third of the trail made the hike seem like another easy jaunt, the rest of the hike was not as easy (as warned by some of the signage).
Indeed, once we got past the gentle picnic park, the trail quickly became a bit narrower and rougher as it mostly clung to the banks of the Ribeira da Azenha.
Along the way, there was some mild overgrowth (some of which looked like poison oak), and we had to scramble over some rock as well as water mill ruin obstacles (being careful not to touch any poisonous-looking plants).
About 3/4 of the way to the falls, we encountered a bridge with an intermediate cascade on the Ribeira da Azenha.
I mention this because my wife and daughter actually lost the way here and followed a false trail just past one of the ruins and continued to scramble further upstream alongside the creek.
The correct way was where the trail continued up a steep embankment to get above both the ruins and the banks of the creek.
From there, we’d then go the final 150m or so eventually reaching an interesting rope-assisted boulder- and large slab scramble that could easily be quite slippery when wet.
Immediately past the rope-assisted obstacle was the Pedra da Ferida Waterfall, where some additional scrambling higher upstream yielded more improved views as well as the continuation of the trail.
Indeed, the trail continued towards a viewpoint (miradouro) called the Miradouro da Pedra da Ferida at Carvalhal da Serra as well as eventually the Praia Fluvial da Louçainha (a man-modified swimming hole).
The miradouro was situated high above the gorge (gaining another 33m in elevation from the falls) and required another 200m of trail hiking to reach.
I can’t go into details about the trail beyond the Cascata da Pedra da Ferida since I didn’t go beyond the waterfall though I probably wish that I did at least extend the hike to go to the miradouro.
Overall, we spent about 100 minutes away from the car, but we probably wasted about 20 minutes or so when my wife and daughter got a little lost before finding their way again.
Authorities
The Pedra da Ferida Waterfall is in the Arouca Geopark near the town of Espinhal in the Penela Municipality of the Coimbra District of the Centro Region of Portugal. It is managed by the Municipality of Penela. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Penela Municipality website.
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