Camping and Hiking in Peneda-Gerês National Park in Northern Portugal

Alena and I decided to split up for a week of solo traveling after visiting Porto for a few days. We had always planned to have some time alone on our trip to experience different things and get some individual travel time. She decided to train back to Lisbon to enjoy the city. I planned to explore the north of Portugal splitting the week between wine tasting in the famed Douro Valley and taking in the great outdoors of Portugal's only National Park: Peneda-Gerês National Park.

I rented a car near the Porto airport and drove over to the nearby shopping mall to get camping gear and some basic supplies. At Decathlon (basically Portugal's version of Sports Authority or Dicks) I was able to pick up a two man tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, small chair, and inflatable pillow for just under €70. This was crazy cheap compared to what I'm used to in the States. With my gear settled and a quick food run, I was set for a camping adventure.

Gerês National Park is a 270 square mile wilderness along the far north border with Spain. It is about an hour and a half drive from Porto and has three main entrance points along the Limia, Homem and Cávado rivers.

My first destination was Parque Cerdeira near the Rio Homem. I stayed here two nights and greatly enjoyed the campground and it's great location for amazing hiking and easy access to enchanting forests and beautiful cascades.

The campground had really nice options of meadow or hillside camp spots. I chose a nice carved out spot on the hillside, perfect for a small tent. The campgrounds in Europe are quite different than I was used to in California. They are like mini resorts with fancy showers, stores, restaurants and sporting amenities (pools, zip lining, horse riding and mini golf). It was not quite the remote experience I was hoping for, but since it was still the slow season before the summer rush I basically had the tent camping area to myself.

Even though this was a fancy campground, they did not provide toilet paper in the bathrooms (which were heated and spotless clean, but no tp?!). Luckily the mini market onsite sold some super cheap or it would have been sticks and leaves for me!

I'd highly recommend Parque Cerdeira as a home base for a few nights of exploring Gerês and I'd definitely recommend their restaurant. While I saw other people order cheap and delicious looking pizza pies, I stopped in one night for their specialty, Pedaco de Gerês.

It was a cornbread and honey encrusted veal steak with a greens and cornbread side dish along with caramelized onions and tomatoes! A great post hike dinner and something I definitely plan on replicating back home.

From the campground there were various hiking options. One day I decided to do part of the white path which took me along the reservoir and along the Homem river toward the border with Spain.

After about 5 miles of walking among Roman ruins and along the dirt road skirting the reservoir (not much of a hike, just a long walk that you could drive if you really wanted) there was a side trail to the left that lead to the river and this beautiful view from a small foot bridge.

The water below was so pure and inviting that I had to find a way down there to take a dip!

Just past the bridge, the trail took a sharp turn right with a lesser trail leading left. I followed this steep game path down to the river and with a little light scrambling I ended up on a nice slab of granite with one of the best swimming holes I've ever seen at my disposal.

The next day I drove the backroads towards the town of Gerês and the famous Cascata do Arado. I planned to camp there for a couple nights and explore that side of the National Park.

On my way through the back country I saw this amazing peak not far from the road with a dirt path that seemed to lead toward it. I pulled over, threw some snacks into my little pack and started for the top.

A few miles later I made it to the top of the highest boulder with a 360 view of the National Park!

Never a bad time for a can of peaches.

Right as I began to head down I heard a creepy hiss and saw a snake dart into a nearby bush. So naturally I grabbed a stick to sho it out to see how big it was and what type of snake it might be.

This huge green snake ripped out of there like a bolt of lightening. It scared the crap out of me and made me so jumpy my whole hike back to the car. I kept thinking under each crevasse and inside each bush another super speedy snake could pop out and attack me. Not a relaxing walk in the woods!

Another hour of back road driving in my crappy little Volkswagen lead me from mountain scrubland through picture perfect green fern forests and finally to the cascades.

I had seen a few little signs for various cascades and could see from the road that most of them were small and unimpressive, so I was a little hesitant to drive out the Cascata do Arado. But I had time to kill and something about the signs for this cascade seemed more impressive so I kept following the little signs till I arrived at a car filled entrance to a rougher dirt road.

Glad to find a road to walk down that seemed less snakey, I headed up river to find the cascades.

This random spot ended up being the highlight of my time in Gerês Nation Park!

The trail ended at a viewing platform for some of the most gorgeous cascades I've ever seen. Picture perfect and pristine.

Again, after the long day of hiking around I felt the need to jump into the perfect looking water.

There is no better outdoor experience than hiking to a beautiful water source and taking a dip in the cool water. The deep pool at the bottom of the waterfall was a perfect spot to leap into from the surrounding boulders were I spent a while sunning like a lizard while my clothes dried in the afternoon sunshine.

Afterward I made my back to Gerês and Camping Vidoeiro where I set up camp in a nice spot that over looked a little river that flowed through the campground. This place was more of a normal campground but still had some fancy amenities.

The camp had bbq grills in the sites, so I headed into Gerês to buy some food to grill up!

I had this fancy bottle of red wine we had purchased for my birthday and never drank,so I went to the local butcher to get some steak to go with it. It was a perfect end to my day, grilled steak over a real fire with a bottle of delicious Alentejo wine next to a gurgling stream in the great outdoors of Portugal!

The next day I made the beautiful drive to the border with Spain and walked across the border. Had to get pass the intense security cows guarding the road.

Camp kitty came to say hello one evening while I as enjoying the view of the river from the camp's deck area.

I said goodbye to the Cavado River and Gerês National Park and headed further east along the border with Spain to check out Montesinho Natural Park.

The drive east took me through historical mountain towns that are constructed almost totally out of granite. They are amazing sites to see. At all the little spots I stopped at in these towns the people were so friendly and helpful.

I think this was one of those border cows' buddies. We was eyeing me closely as I passed.

Partway to Montesinho I was driving through the city of Montalegre when I saw this bouldering wall in the park. I pulled over for a snack and to get a quick burn in. Pretty great to get a little climb in to break up the driving.

I made one more pit stop before I reached Montesinho in the Medieval town of Chaves. First stop was the famous meat pie shop D'Chaves were I ordered three Pastel de Chaves! These things are delicious little croissant like pastries wrapped around marinated ground beef. So buttery and meaty and tasty.

I took a short walk along the river to burn off the pastries and see the towns three bridges; one built by the Romans and still in use, one modern and one a sketchy little foot bridge.

I planned to walk over the nerve wracking stepping stone bridge then cross back over the newer bridge. The huge warning signs about crossing at your own risk and potentially drowning in the swift and deep waters did not dissuade me. I set off across and was enjoying the intense concentration of hopping from stone to stone when I noticed a couple started moving under my weight. I hoped this was normal while I hopped along over the dark water.

About two thirds across I came to this unnerving sight!

One of the stones had toppled over. Seemed that the wobbling under my feet was apparently a bad sign. The jump across this gap was a good three and half feet and would have landed me on a potentially compromised stone far from shore. So I turned around and had to made the long journey back over the two thirds of river that I had already crossed. Knowing that the stones were not totally secure made the journey back over the wobbly rocks just a bit more intense. Luckily I made it back to my car dry and continued to Montesinho.

Finally I made it to the Natural Park. I had a bit trouble finding where to enter the park as google maps takes you the ranger station in a city outside the park instead of inside the park. The area near Vinhais and Rio Tuela were very beautiful.

While it seemed like a cool spot to relax and explore, my trip to this park got cut short by a huge storm that dumped inches of rain on the area and forced me and my cheap camping gear to seek shelter in a hostel. I spent the rest of the week exploring Douro Valley and the great wine and food of that region.

I wish I had more time to camp and hike in the north of Portugal as the scenery was gorgeous and the lack of crowds in May made it a very peaceful experience. It was definitely a region of the country to add to one's travel agenda for Portugal.

Couple side notes. 1. If your rent a car in Portugal definitely get the electronic toll system, Specially if in the North, as there are many cashless tolls I went through that require this system, with the alternative being going to the post office and mailing in your toll fees. Get the toll device! 2. I went for a 15 Celsius bag to save €7 over the 10* bag as I figured it would be fairly warm given it was late May. But at elevation and given the slightly cooler spring Portugal was having, I was pretty cold at night and wishing I had a warmer bag! 3. If you want to visit the area but don't want to camp you can still go as all the campgrounds I visited had cabins and yurts to rent as well. They had many openings while I was there in May, but they said you need reservations in the summer time. 4. Double stuffed Oreos are way better than original Oreos and make great camping desserts as well as awesome hiking snacks!