About Cascatas da Ribeira dos Caldeiroes
Cascatas da Ribeira dos Caldeiroes is a series of at least 4 waterfalls situated within the same natural park in the northeastern part of Ilha São Miguel (the largest of the Azorean Islands).
Of these waterfalls that we’ve encountered, half of them were man-made while the other half were natural.
There could have also been another waterfall well downstream from the park, but private property prevented access to that last one.
Indeed, as you can see from the photos on this page, it turns out that the biggest waterfalls in the Ribeira dos Caldeirões Park benefitted from diversion pipes.
In fact, the people responsible for building and maintaining this park did a pretty slick job of concealing the pipes as they were pretty much under the foot trail paralleling the Ribeira dos Caldeirões Creek.
Speaking of the experience, we started off by going where just about everyone else (including tour bus crowds) went, and that was to the waterfall easily seen from the road bridge.
I call this the “second waterfall” because there’s a “first waterfall” about 450m further upstream along the trail remaining alongside the Ribeira dos Caldeirões Creek.
That creek pretty much lacked water throughout this stretch of the trail, and it’s the main reason why I already suspected the “second” waterfall was artificial.
Upon reaching the “first” waterfall, which was a modestly-sized natural waterfall (maybe about 5m tall or shorter), I noticed that its water volume seemed normal, and that was when I noticed the intake pool almost immediately downstream of it.
Indeed, that intake pool was where most of the Ribeira dos Caldeirões went as it fed pipes going to the second waterfall leaving behind a trickle on the main path of the creek itself.
In fact, there was an intermediate cascade almost immediately downstream of the intake area, which was pretty much robbed of its water unless there had been significant precipitation to overflow the intake pool.
Anyways, the second waterfall tends to get all the commotion (as well as compel motorists to immediately find parking) given that it’s the primary beneficiary of the creek diversion combined with its roadside position.
Nearby this waterfall, there’s also an interesting metastable contraption that always see-saws back-and-forth as falling water spills on one side of it before tipping and filling the other side, and it oscillates perpetually.
I tend to view this waterworks as indicative of the engineering involved in the water diversion as well as the operation of the historic 16th century mills here.
Continuing downstream of the bridge, there’s a visitor center, a cafe, a garden, and a third waterfall (which is natural) dropping in plain sight from the visitor center building.
We witnessed some abseilers who were on tour descending or jumping from this waterfall into its plunge pool below, and I’d imagine that’s how locals or tour operators here primarily use that third waterfall.
Finally, there’s a fourth waterfall further downstream that also benefits from diversion pipes as it spilled next to a lower trail from seemingly out of nowhere (as there’s no creek upstream from this waterfall).
Well, if you ever wondered why the main creek of Ribeira dos Caldeirões and that third waterfall doesn’t have much water, the answer is that the diversion pipes (still concealed beneath the trail) empties over this fourth waterfall.
Just downstream of the fourth waterfall were some water mills as well as a fifth waterfall spilling from these mills back into the Ribeira dos Caldeirões.
At this point, the park pretty much ended, but the trail continued to descend and pretty much go alongside the Ribeira dos Caldeirões.
Even though I pursued another waterfall further down the creek, I found out the hard way that doing so would require trespassing on someone’s private property.
So I ultimately considered it a loss and wasted time and effort even getting down to the private property boundary, and I’m telling you right now that you mind as well save your time and energy but not going past the park boundaries for it.
Overall, it was about 700m (1.4km round-trip) between the road bridge and parking (see directions below) and the water mills.
We wound up spending about 3 hours away from the car, but I’d imagine this could easily be cut in half.
After all, we spent 45 minutes eating at the cafe, and I spent another 45 minutes seeking out the 6th waterfall here.
I should also mention that even though the services here have hours from 9am to 5pm, the trails and the waterfalls themselves can be visited for free at any time.
That said, you’ll definitely want to show up early because of the parking situation given that space is quite limited.
Authorities
Cascatas da Ribeira dos Caldeirões resides in the Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeirões near Achada on the island of São Miguel of the Azores Autonomous Region of Portugal. It is managed by the Municipality of Nordeste. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the official Azores tourism website.
The Cascatas da Ribeira dos Caldeirões resides in the Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeirões in the civil parish of Achada of the Island of São Miguel.
Since we stayed in the town of Furnas, I’ll describe the most straightforward way to drive to the waterfall from there.
From the EN1-1A intersection just to the east of the Repsol gas station in Furnas, we’d drive north and then make an immediate right turn onto the one-way road through the center of town.
After about 300m going east on the EN1-1A, we’d then keep straight ahead before turning left at the next three-way junction (the one-way road has us going that way anyways).
Shortly after the left turn, we then took the next right turn where a sign pointed the way to Ribeira Grande and Ponta Delgada.
From there, we followed this single-lane road to the EN2-1A, where we then turned left to continue driving on the EN2-1A Road for the next 8km or so.
Then, we turned right onto the EN4-2, where there’s a sign for Nordeste, L. Maia, and Burguete, and we followed this road for 2.5km to the EN1-1A motorway towards Nordeste.
Next, for we’d continue driving on the EN1-1A Motorway for the next 10km to an exit for Santana and Achada on the right.
Once at the roundabout, we would take the second exit for the Ribeira dos Caldeirões, and then follow this road for the remaining 750m to the car park on the right.
Overall, this drive should take around 30 minutes.
Alternatively, we could also exit the motorway at the ramp for Achadinha and Salga (there’s also a brown Parque Ribeira dos Caldeirões sign).
Once at the roundabout just after its off-ramp, we’d then take the second exit to go onto the signed access road leading to the Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeirões.
The car park will be on the left after about 2.5km or so from the roundabout, where the parking will be just past the road bridge over Ribeira dos Caldeirões on the left.
For context, Achadinha is about 3km (about 5 minutes drive) west of Achada, 15km (under 15 minutes drive) west of Nordeste, 19km (under 30 minutes drive) north of Furnas, about 25km (about 30 minutes drive) east of Ribeira Grande, about 21km (over 30 minutes drive) north of Povoação, and about 44km (under 60 minutes drive) northeast of Ponta Delgada.
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Brief video showing the falls from the road bridge while also checking out the perpetual see-saw
Short scramble starting from the perpetual see-saw to the base of the waterfall closest to the road bridge
Contextual video showing the trickling intermediate waterfall before walking towards the diversion pond and then finally ending at the uppermost of the waterfalls in this area
Downstream to upstream sweep from the road bridge showing the nearest of the waterfalls to the car parking area
Long video checking out two waterfalls downstream of the road bridge starting with the natural one before walking over to a view through a masterpiece theater of the bigger (artificial) one further downstream
Checking out the big artificial waterfall from the picnic area between the tourist info building and the two bottom water mills as seen from both sides of its plunge pool
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