Part of what drew me to the Azores was the beautiful photos of volcanic lakes surrounded by lush green fields. The Azores boast plenty of hikes for those folks who want a little adventure and a lot of beautiful scenery. I’m sure there are other reasons to come here, but hiking was my number one.
mountain lake
Bird taking flight over the lake
Shortly after we landed and got our rental car, we were on the road to our first hike. The Azorian has a great website listing all of the marked trails including trail maps, length, difficulty and what you’ll see along the way. Since it was afternoon by the time we got started, we decided to start with a shorter route - The Serra Devassa trail - listed as taking 1-2 hours. I’m thinking the folks that complete this trail in 1 hour aren’t stopping to take photos or enjoy the sights.
Above the clouds
More mountain lakes
Along the way, there were gorgeous views of the valleys as well as extinct volcanic craters that are now mountain lakes. There are even a few antiquated aqueducts from the 1800s. One item that had me perplexed through the hike was a large hill with a ring of trees at the top. Throughout the hike, it was nearly always there. I was wondering if it could have been an ancient burial mound (I’m from Ohio, we have lots of burial mounds) or possibly an ancient fortification. Finally, as we climbed to the highest point of the hike, we could see down into the lake of this former volcano. I should have guessed that.
Placid mountain lake
Extinct volcano
Part of the trail
After 3 hours, we completed the circular route and landed back at our car. After getting nearly no sleep on our flight over, we were both exhausted when we got back to the hotel. A perfect first day on Sao Miguel Island!
This featured blog entry was written by Jengt from the blog Jenny sees the World.
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