About Salto do Cabrito
Salto do Cabrito is an easily accessible (and thus popular) waterfall adjacent to a hydroelectric plant near the city of Ribeira Grande in the north central part of São Miguel Island.
The waterfall means “little goat’s leap” since the word cabrito means a kid or little goat.
The thinking was that the goats could jump between and within the rocky chasm carved out by the Ribeira Grande before the creek would make its double plunges losing about 30-40m in height.
That said, the Azores don’t have large native animals like deer or goat (they were introduced in the 15th century by Portugese mariners).
The largest mammal native to the Azores Islands is a noctule, which is a mouse-eared bat.
Anyways, visiting this waterfall was pretty straightforward as it was situated next to what appeared to be a hydroelectricity plant.
Most of the walking to access Salto do Cabrito involved going down a steep road for about 600m (or 1.2km round-trip) losing about 40m in elevation (which you have to get back on the return).
Apparently, they used to let you drive down to the car park at the bottom of this road, but that became too dangerous given the amount of traffic this place gets.
These days, driving this road is now strictly for authorities and workers of the Central Hidroeléctrica da Fajã do Redondo.
Once at the bottom of the road, I then followed a short path for about 100-200m going past a building situated right next to the creek of Ribeira Grande.
Right around the corner from this building was the impressive Salto do Cabrito flanked by tall vertical cliffs on two of its sides.
The plunge pool was easily accessible so lots of people came here in bathing suits ready to cool off from the heat and humidity that tends to dominate the climate of São Miguel Island.
My visit here only lasted about an hour (of which a large chunk of the visit involved just taking pictures and basking in the atmosphere while sharing the place with dozens of other people).
I could have extended my visit by going up the steps behind the adjacent building to the Central Hidroeléctrica after another 350m, but I didn’t do that.
However, I did take an unsigned detour further downstream of the chutes and hydroelectric infrastructure to another swimming hole, where some families took part in swimming and wading here just to cool off in the rapids.
Of course, the climb back up the road will make you sweat (and possibly make your calves sore), but at least it’s not a very long climb and it’s pretty much over before you know it.
Authorities
Salto do Cabrito is located near the city and municipality of Ribeira Grande on the island of São Miguel of the Azores Autonomous Region of Portugal. I believe it is managed by the Central Hidroeléctrica da Fajã do Redondo as well as the Municipality of Ribeira Grande. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the official Azores tourism website.
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