About Grena Park Waterfalls
Grena Park Waterfalls (or Cascatas de Parque da Grená in Portugese) consist of at least 6 waterfalls on an unnamed seasonal stream passing right through the park.
Although Parque da Grená is adjacent to the Caldeira Lagoa das Furnas (known for lakeside recreation and thermal features), the former is in a separate, paid area.
This park was said to have opened in December 2019, but it was closed shortly thereafter due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, it wasn’t until after the pandemic had passed that the park finally opened to the public.
That said, the land upon which the park existed had changed hands since 1832, when it was acquired by an English traveler, but was since developed by the British Consul of Ponta Delgada named Vines.
The consul named the property Grená after the name of his wife’s childhood family house in Ireland.
Anyways, the paid area means that in order to visit Parque da Grená, I had to pay an additional fee in order to get through the turnstile blocking entry into the park.
This turnstile was about a 200-250m walk from the main car park for the Caldeira Lagoa das Furnas on the northwestern side of the lake.
As of my visit in late June 2024, I paid 10 euros for a ticket (this is the per person rate), which can be a bit steep (despite the signage here suggesting this is “so cheap”).
Thus, I did this excursion on my own since my wife and daughter wasn’t really interested in doing this hike let alone spending another 20 euros for the privilege.
Anyways, Grená Park not only features waterfalls, but it also has views of the Lagoa das Furnas as well as some captive animals that I’m sure the families would enjoy.
Of the 6 numbered waterfalls in the park, Waterfall #1 is the uppermost one, and it’s called the “English Leap Falls” (also Poça da Inglesa or “English Well”).
I suspect the name of the falls has something to do with the British Consul who first developed this park.
It’s by far the tallest of the waterfalls (probably around 40-50m), but it does tend to have a light, wispy flow, especially in the Summer.
Other notable waterfalls that I’ve found to be most impressive involve Waterfalls #3, #4, and #6.
Waterfall #3 had a sloping rock surface with a spring and alcove next to it, and it required a bit of an uncomfortable rock scramble to get a good look at it.
Waterfall #4 had a nice 5-10m plunge with a bit more volume than the wispy English Leap Falls, and could very well be my favorite one in the park.
Waterfall #6 was a wide cascade easily seen from a wide footbridge that was well downstream of Waterfall #3, but it was possible to see both waterfalls from this bridge.
As for exploring all of the waterfalls in Parque da Grená, I managed to do it by hiking a counterclockwise loop that was about 2.5km long (including all the detours).
There’s actually a pretty extensive network of criss-crossing trails crossing the creek in several spots, which provided options for customizing this hike in countless ways.
There were map signs helping you locate where you are in the park, but there were also pamphlets and PDFs of the park to refer to if you need something with you while on the trail.
The trail conditions were well-maintained with railings and steps in the steepest parts, and the rough scrambling was pretty much kept to a minimum (I recalled only Waterfall #3 had one such rough scramble).
Since my focus was more on exploring all the waterfalls, I even backtracked to hit up the waterfalls that I missed earlier on (which might have increased the distance even more than for a typical visit).
Ultimately, I spent about 90 minutes within the Grená Park, but we also spent about an hour at Lagoa das Furnas, so we wound up spending about 2.5 hours away from the car.
Authorities
The Grena Park Waterfalls are located on the island of São Miguel of the Azores Autonomous Region of Portugal. It is privately managed by Feliz Terra, which is doing so under direction of the Azores Autonomous Region Government. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Grená Park website.
The Grena Park Waterfalls are located on the northwestern shores of Lagoa das Furnas on the island of São Miguel.
Since we stayed in the town of Furnas, I’ll describe how we drove to the Lagoa das Furnas Thermal Park from the town.
From the EN1-1A intersection just to the east of the Repsol gas station in Furnas, we drove west along the EN1-1A for about 2km to a signed turnoff on the right for “Caldeiras”.
Then, we followed the access road around the north shore of Lagoa das Furnas for about 700m to its end at the car park for the Caldeira Lagoa das Furnas.
I recalled that this car park charged us 3 euros per person in cash, which can add up if you have more people in your party.
Therefore, I could totally see why people parked for free along the access road and then walked into the park to avoid paying this fee.
Anyways, this drive should take about 10 minutes (though GoogleMaps claimed that it should only take 5 minutes).
If you’re coming from the other direction as you drive north along the eastern shores of Lagoa das Furnas on the cobblestone road, then you’d want to turn left onto the access road about 1.8km past the car park for the south side of Lagoa das Furnas.
For context, Furnas is about 8km (about 15 minutes drive) north of Ribeira Quente, about 13km (under 30 minutes drive) northwest of Povoação, about 25km (about 30 minutes drive) east of Ribeira Grande, 34km (over 30 minutes drive) southwest of Nordeste, and about 45km (under 60 minutes drive) east of Ponta Delgada.
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Downstream to upstream sweep from the base of the English Leap waterfall in light wispy flow
Checking out Falls 3 and some segmented cascades as seen from a long footbridge over its creek
Sweep showing the pair of light-flowing waterfalls before an awkward scramble to a lower spot better showing the alcove to the left and another sweep of the same 2 falls
Downstream to upstream sweep from a footbridge fronting the cascade labeled 6 with the falls labeled 4 in the background
Upstream to downstream and back sweep of the satisfying falls 4 seen from the edge of its plunge pool
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