About Salto do Rosal
Salto do Rosal is a secluded waterfall situated within the Mata-Jardim José do Canto, which is a garden situated off the south side of the Lagoa das Furnas Lake.
At around 30m tall, this was one of the taller waterfalls on São Miguel Island, but I definitely had to earn my visit with a bit of a hike.
I also had to time my visit because its creek may be seasonal, which you might be able to tell from its slender appearance in the photo above.
Heck, my topo map doesn’t even show its creek (it’s on the Ribeira Rosal), which could also be an indicator of its seasonality as well as limited waterflow.
Speaking of timing a visit, I also had to make sure I was able to visit the falls during the woodland garden’s open hours as I had failed on my first attempt when I tried this hike too close to closing time.
Anyways, the Mata-Jardim José do Canto was named after a gardener and botanist who ultimately was responsible for the creation of the park in the mid 19th century.
In addition to the waterfall being a main attraction of the garden, it also featured a seemingly out-of-place sequoia tree as well as the ruins of a chapel facing conspicuously the southern shore of Lagoa das Furnas.
The giant California Redwood tree stands at over 200ft and is surrounded by Japanese cedar trees, which really made the hike to the Salto do Rosal rather unique in the Azores (let alone Portugal in general).
The garden also featured the ruins of a chapel called the Capela Nossa Senhora da Vitória, which José do Canto dedicated to his wife who had a serious illness.
That chapel is also apparently a gothic church but heavily influenced by French architecture as José do Canto had an affinity for French culture.
Accessing Salto do Rosal
Starting from the public car park (see directions below), we crossed the road and walked along the cobblestone path skirting the southern shore of Lagoa das Furnas.
With the barricades and machines set up at the car park, it looked like they used to collect payment to park here, but it was free when I went in late June 2024.
Anyways, in the first 600m, we walked by a picnic and restroom area before going by the Capela Nossa Senhora da Vitória (which stood tall above the walkway).
Eventually, we got to the entrance gate, where someone collected 4 euros per person to enter (their hours were 10am-6pm every day).
Once in the complex, we pretty much followed the signs for Salto do Rosal, which had us veer left back towards the chapel.
Since the door was open but barred, we could get a peek into the chapel with stained glass windows turning sunlight into colors spread out on the floors and walls.
After the chapel, we then pretty much hiked a mostly flat and wide path that veered south after passing through an arched gateway.
The path eventually went past a picnic area before continuing south as it was sandwiched between a hill on one side and the EN1-1A Road on the other.
At roughly 800m past the gate, the path reached a junction where signs pointed the way to continue towards the Salto do Rosal and Sequoia.
The other roads came in from the EN1-1A Road, and I suspect that they were service roads for people working the woodland garden as well as the farm or ranch (there was a large pasture as the terrain opened up to the west).
At around 350m beyond the junction, the trail went past some ruins as it entered a grove of Japanese Cedar Trees eventually getting to the base of the Giant California Redwood Tree.
Given that the garden was about 150 years old, the redwood has had enough time to grow very tall, and it makes for a nice photo op.
After the redwood, the trail then starts to climb noticeably for the final 800m of the trail’s length as the valley narrows to the point that we eventually follow then traverse the stream responsible for Salto do Rosal.
It’s at this point that we started to see the waterfall, but we still had to do a little more minor stream and rock scrambling before finally arriving at the secluded base of the Salto do Rosal.
The presence of the large rocks around the base of the waterfall served as a reminder to us that there’s a constant threat of rockfalls here given that the cliff walls were quite vertical.
When we showed up in the late morning (around 11am), there was a faint rainbow in the waterfall’s mist at its base.
The microclimate caused by the waterfall’s spray was quite refreshing considering how much humidity this part of the Azores gets.
Anyways, after having our fill of the Salto do Rosal, we then hiked back the way we came, and we ultimately hiked a total of 6.2km (1.2km outside the mata-jardim and 5km inside the mata-jardim).
The entire visit took us about 2 hours.
Authorities
The Salto do Rosal is located in the Mata-Jardim José do Canto on the island of São Miguel of the Azores Autonomous Region of Portugal. It is privately owned and managed by the descendents of José do Canto and his wife. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Mata/Jardim José do Canto website.
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