About Cascata de Sao Miguel (Cascata da Portela do Homem)
Cascata de Sao Miguel (or Cascata de São Miguel) is a very popular swimming hole in Peneda-Gerês National Park located near the Spanish-Portugese border at Portela do Homem.
For that reason, sometimes, this waterfall can also be referred to as the Cascata da Portela do Homem.
As you can see from the photo above, this was an attractively cascading waterfall into a colorful and clear plunge pool that had plenty of water for a dip that can be shared by many people.
When you consider how hot Portugal can get, it’s understandable by this place was so popular, especially when you consider its proximity to the popular town of Gerês.
It was hard to tell from my topo map how much the Rio Homem fell at the falls.
However, my guess was that it was probably on the order of 10-15m or so when you look at its cumulative height.
The height of this waterfall could best be appreciated from the road bridge (or perhaps with a drone), but when you get down to the river, the falls looks shorter than it really is.
In order to access the Cascata de São Miguel, we first had to park by the border station at Portela do Homem (see directions below).
There was no parking at the road bridge over the Rio Homem, and sometimes there’s personnel stationed here to ensure people don’t try to park illegally nor try to access the waterfall from the south side of the river (more on that later).
From the abandoned border station, we then walked back south along the mostly shaded road for about 700m before returning to the road bridge over the Rio Homem.
At the bridge, we could enjoy the festive scene beneath us on the Rio Homem all backed by the impressive waterfall.
However, in order to get down to the river and join these people, we had to go down an informal and somewhat risky scrambling path on the north side of the bridge (left side as we face upstream).
The trail-of-use quickly gets to a precarious ledge, where it’s tempting to go straight down into the river, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that.
Instead, follow a ledge downstream towards the bottom of the bridge, where there’s a much more manageable descent to the level of the Rio Homem.
Then, you can scramble and boulder your way back upstream in or along the Rio Homem to get closer to the waterfall.
By the way, this rugged terrain is indicative of why trying to access the Rio Homem or the waterfall from the south bank is not safe.
Anyways, there are definitely deep areas in the river so getting to the final rock outcrop before the big plunge pool at the base of the falls was tricky (especially since I had camera gear that I didn’t want to get wet).
Otherwise, this was a real refreshing wade and/or swim on a hot day (which was definitely the case during our mid-June 2024 visit).
Personally from a photography standpoint, I thought the Cascata de São Miguel looked better from the bridge, but I think the point of this waterfall was that it’s really more of a swimming hole than photo spot.
Overall, we spent around 90 minutes away from the car, but most of that time was spent chilling out around the Rio Homem right in front of the waterfall.
Authorities
Cascata de São Miguel is located in Peneda-Gerês National Park near the village of Gerês in the Braga District of the Norte Region of Portugal. It is managed by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests Municipality. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Natural.pt website.
The Cascata de São Miguel Waterfall resides in Peneda-Gerês National Park north of the town of Gerês (or Vila do Gerês).
I’ll describe the driving directions as if I was driving from Gerês since that was where we were staying when we made our visit to this waterfall.
So first, we headed north on the N308-1 Road from the center of Gerês, which is an elongated, mountainous town bisected by the Rio Gerês with separated one-way streets going northbound and southbound in its center.
Then, we continued along this road for about 13km to the Portela do Homem.
Note that the N308-1 is a pretty narrow road supporting bi-directional traffic so you definitely need to exercise caution with oncoming vehicles where you might have to squeeze by without clipping each other.
If you find yourself behind slower drivers, there are very few opportunities to pass (if any) so you’ll have to be patient or hope they use a pullout to let other drivers pass.
Once at the Portela do Homem, there seems to be a lot of car parking space, and this includes some informal spots directly in front of the abandoned station.
Overall, this drive took us about 25 minutes.
For context, Gerês is about 43km (about an hour drive) northeast of Braga, 82km (about 90 minutes drive) east of Ponte de Lima, about 96km (over 90 minutes drive) northeast of Porto, 65km (over 90 minutes drive northwest of Mondim de Basto, about 213km (over 2.5 hours drive) north of Coimbra, and 406km (over 4.5 hours drive) north of Lisbon.
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Following the Rio Homem from downstream to upstream before focusing and panning on the waterfall as well as the commotion down below
Brief downstream to upstream sweep from an intermediate ledge on the scramble down to the level of the Rio Homem
Upstream to downstream and back sweep from within the Rio Homem
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