Description
Hiking trails cross much of the landscape on the nine islands in the Azores archipelago, a far-flung autonomous region of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean. Because the Azores are the peaks of vast mountains straddling active tectonic plates, the topography here is a dazzling mix of volcanic forms. On São Miguel Island, crater lakes gleam below the jagged green cones of ancient volcanoes. Hot springs and mud pots hiss and bubble in the island’s Furnas Valley. The trail around the Sete Cidades volcanic crater reveals jaw-dropping views like the one we can see in our image.