SERRA DOS ORGÃOS NATIONAL PARK

Only an hour from Rio de Janeiro in the high Orgãos Mountains is the Orgãos National Park, one of the country’s best options for adventure sports. Encompassing the majority of rock formations and peaks in the area, this national park is the main reason why visitors come to Petrópolis and Teresópolis, although many of the towns and communities outside the park have been working hard to attract tourists with their rural pleasures (country ranches, crafts, and restaurants mostly). The highlights of the national park are the incredible rocky peaks known to climbers all over the world. The most prominent of these is Dedo de Deus (Finger of God) in the form of a large finger pointing to the sky. The tip of the finger is 1,692 meters high and often scaled by expert climbers. You can hike to the base even if you don’t plan to scale the big digit. Other peaks are known as Pedra do Sino (Bell Rock, 2,263 m), Pedra do Açu (Big Rock in the Tupi-Guarani language, 2,216 m), and Dedo de Nossa Senhora (Finger of Our Lady, 1,406 m).

You can also rappel down waterfalls and take a raft down the white waters of the Paquequer River. You can hike along the many trails in the park with cool waterfalls as your final destination or partake of a three-day hike across the park. There are a couple of campgrounds and lodges inside the park for overnight camping, plus guides that can take you through the adventures within.

Most of the trails, rivers, and waterfalls are accessible by starting at the visitor’s center in Teresópolis, although there are also several hikes you can take from the visitor’s center in Guapimirim. The visitor’s center in Teresópolis has a pond, campground, lookout point, and several short trails.

The park is open Wednesday–Sunday, and visitors are allowed to enter and leave between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Staying the night in the park requires a camping permit (R$6 per person) that you should purchase the day before, after consulting with a guide. (Overnight stays require the presence of a guide and only 100 people are allowed to camp inside the park each night.) The office is open 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Wednesday–Sunday. If you arrive by car, you can park in the visitor’s center for R$5. Basic entrance to the park is R$3 per person, on top of any camping permit you may purchase. If you plan to enter the park before the office opens, you should purchase your entrance the previous day. Some day hikes require that you start quite early, so this is a good thing to remember.

Guides and Adventures

Many of the adventures in the park require the presence of a guide. Most guides are equipped to take you through the trails and campsites in the park, and most will provide cooking services along the way. If you are missing any equipment, they usually have rental equipment for anything you might need. Guides are also able to make arrangements for special adventures like white-water rafting (which takes place along the Paquequer River inside the park), rappelling, canyon scaling, and other radical endeavors. An activity known as cascading involves rappelling down a waterfall cascade. Here are some guides you can contact: Mundo de Mato (tel. 21/2742-0811, www.mundodemato.com.br), Eco Trilhas (tel. 21/2742-2478, www.ecotrilhas.com.br), and the Centro de Excursionistas de Teresópolis (tel. 21/2643-1777).

You can also look into visiting the Campo de Aventuras Paraíso Açú (Estrada do Bonfim 3511, tel. 24/2236-0003, www.campodeaventurasparaisoacu.com.br), which is a park within the park where you’ll find an infrastructure already in place for things like rappelling, cascading, and rafting. They also have a ropes course and paintball park. You can access the Campo de Aventuras off the Bonfim Trail near the Petrópolis side of the park (enter from Petrópolis).

The Trails

There’s a 30-minute hike on the Mozart Catão Trail that leads to a lookout point near the visitor’s center. It’s a great place to take pictures and see the city of Teresópolis from above. The trail to the Véu da Noiva Waterfall (35 meters high) takes about 1.5 hours and is a relatively light hike. Not far from there is the Andorinhas Waterfall at 15 meters. Swimming is permitted in both, so don’t forget your bathing suit. The Beija-Flor Trail (Hummingbird Trail) is a short but difficult path that is designed for bird-watching. It takes about 2.5 hours to complete. There are two swimming holes that are accessible from the Guapimirim visitor’s center. One is only 15 minutes from the center and the other is 30 minutes. They are natural pools formed at points in the Soberbo River and are excellent for swimming.

From the Teresópolis visitor’s center, you can take the Bonfim Trail to the highest peak in the park, the Pedra do Sino, which provides a spectacular view of the entire mountain range and its various peaks. You’ll pass a couple of waterfalls and several viewpoints along the way. The trail is difficult and takes 5.5 hours to reach the Pedra. You should start this hike as soon as the gates open at 6 a.m. if you want to be sure to return before the gates close at 6 p.m. A similar hike goes up the Bonfim Trail from the Petrópolis side of the park as far as Pedra do Açu. That hike is about seven heavy-duty kilometers and takes eight hours to get there and back. If you want to walk the entire length of the Bonfim Trail, from Teresópolis to Petrópolis, you’ll need a camping permit and a guide, as the 42-kilometer trail takes three days to complete. Along with the two major peaks mentioned earlier, you’ll see the 500-meter drop of the Portal do Hércules Canyon.