🇧🇷 Brazil · South
Some landscapes look painted to leave anyone speechless, and Itaimbezinho Canyon is one of them. At the edge of the Serra Geral, where the gaúcho plateau ends and the land falls away all at once, a gigantic cleft opens up nearly six kilometers long with vertical walls that in places exceed 700 meters. Streams and waterfalls run below, dropping into the void; above stretch the high grasslands dotted with araucarias, the ancient pines that are a symbol of southern Brazil. All of it is protected inside the Parque Nacional dos Aparados da Serra, on the border between Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina.
Itaimbezinho is not 'conquered' in one particular way: it is contemplated. From the rim, trails lead to lookouts where the canyon opens like a vertiginous amphitheater, with the Véu de Noiva waterfall spilling down the wall and vultures and other birds gliding on the air currents. Anyone after adventure can descend to the floor on the Trilha do Rio do Boi, a demanding walk between sheer walls that is done with a guide only. And its sibling waits nearby: the Fortaleza canyon, with one of the most striking lookouts in all of Brazil. The base for everything is Cambará do Sul, a highland town with a gaucho feel, cold and quiet, surrounded by ranches and araucarias.
This guide takes a practical, warm look at how to see Itaimbezinho and its region: which trails to walk and which need a guide, how to get there from Cambará do Sul, when to go to dodge the fog, what to bring for the cold and the wind of the high grasslands, and what other wonders —the Fortaleza canyon, the waterfalls, sunrises among araucarias— are worth adding. It is one of the most overwhelming corners of southern Brazil, still far from mass tourism, ideal for anyone after big nature and silence.
The name 'Itaimbezinho' comes from the Tupi-Guarani 'itaimbé', usually translated as 'sharp stone' or 'crag cut sheer', with the Portuguese diminutive '-zinho': the 'little sharp stone', a nod to the canyon's vertical walls. Long before the parks, these highlands were crossed by Indigenous peoples and, later, by tropeiros and gauchos who drove cattle between the range and the coast through the passes of the Serra Geral. The canyon began earning its fame in the first half of the 20th century thanks to naturalists and hikers; the best remembered is the Jesuit priest and botanist Balduíno Rambo, who traveled and wrote about the high grasslands of the south. To protect this unique landscape —the aparados (cut edges) of the Serra Geral, its canyons, its araucarias and its high-altitude flora— the Brazilian government created the Parque Nacional dos Aparados da Serra in 1959, one of the country's first national parks. Decades later, in 1992, the neighboring Parque Nacional da Serra Geral was created, protecting other canyons such as Fortaleza and Malacara. Today both parks are run by ICMBio and are among the great natural icons of southern Brazil. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Brazil's southernmost state: a disputed frontier of the Pampa and of the Guaraní Jesuit missions, cradle of the gaúcho of mate and churrasco. Land of the Farroupilha Revolution and of Garibaldi, of the German and Italian immigration of the Serra Gaúcha, of wine and of the spectacular canyons of Cambará do Sul.
Read the history of Rio Grande do Sul →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The name 'Itaimbezinho' has Indigenous roots and describes with remarkable accuracy what travelers see when they lean out over the canyon. It comes from the Tupi-Guarani 'itaimbé', a compound of 'itá' (stone) and a term associated with something sharpened or cut sheer, usually translated as 'sharp stone', 'cutting crag' or 'rock wall cut sheer'. To that Indigenous word the Portuguese diminutive suffix '-zinho' was added, so 'Itaimbezinho' comes out as something like 'the little sharp stone' or 'the little crag cut sheer'.
The name points directly at the most striking feature of the place: the canyon's vertical walls, cut almost sheer, dropping hundreds of meters from the edge of the plateau. It is one of many place names in southern Brazil that carry the mark of Indigenous languages, in this case describing the landscape with the precision of people who knew it long before the Europeans arrived.
The region is part of what is called the 'Aparados da Serra'. 'Aparados' means, in Portuguese, 'trimmed' or 'cut', and describes the edge of the Serra Geral, which looks sliced off in one go: the plateau ends abruptly in a vertical escarpment, as if the tableland had been 'trimmed' with a knife. That image of an edge cut sheer is precisely what named both the canyons and the national park that protects them.
The canyons of the Aparados da Serra are, above all, the work of deep geology and of time. Their story goes back hundreds of millions of years, when the region was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. Back then, vast stretches of southern South America and southern Africa were covered by sand deserts, whose sediments, compacted, gave rise to the sandstones that today form the base of these landscapes (the Botucatu Formation).
Later, around 130 to 135 million years ago, during the break-up of Gondwana and the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, gigantic volcanic eruptions took place. Immense flows of basaltic lava covered the region in successive layers, one on top of another, forming a thick package of volcanic rock known as the Serra Geral Formation. Those basalt layers, laid over the older sandstones, are what make up the plateau and the canyon walls today.
Over millions of years, erosion —rainwater, rivers, wind, cycles of cold and heat— wore down and carved that basalt plateau. At the edge of the Serra Geral, where the tableland drops toward the lowlands, rivers cut deep gorges into the rock, retreating slowly inland and opening the canyons we see today: Itaimbezinho, Fortaleza, Malacara and others. The different lava layers visible in the walls are like the pages of a geological book recording those ancient eruptions. The result is one of the most spectacular sets of canyons in South America.
Long before there were parks, roads or pousadas, the highlands of the Serra Geral were crossed by Indigenous peoples. The high grasslands and araucaria forests of southern Brazil were inhabited by Indigenous groups of the Jê tradition, associated with the culture archaeologists link to the Kaingang and Xokleng peoples, alongside a wider presence of Guarani-speaking peoples in the region. For them, the araucaria was a fundamental resource: the pinhão, the seed of the Paraná pine, was a staple food, and the araucaria forests set the rhythm of life on the plateau.
With the arrival of the Europeans and the spread of ranching in the south, these highlands were absorbed into the routes of the tropeiros, the drovers who moved herds —mostly mules and cattle— between the breeding regions of the south and the markets of the interior and the southeast of Brazil. The passes of the Serra Geral, where the plateau connects with the coastal lowlands, were key roads in that trade. The gaucho culture of the region —cattle, horses, mate, churrasco— has its roots in that history.
Permanent settlement of the Cambará do Sul area took hold with ranches devoted to raising cattle on the high grasslands, making use of the plateau's natural pastures. To that ranching base was added, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the influence of the European immigration that populated much of the Serra Gaúcha, leaving its mark on the food (the cafés coloniais, the cheeses, the cured meats) and on local customs. From that mixture came the calm, rural character of the region that today welcomes canyon visitors.
Although the canyons were always there, their 'discovery' by the wider public —and by science and tourism— came only in the 20th century. Until then, Itaimbezinho was known above all to people in the region, the ranchers and the trackers who worked the high grasslands. Its monumental scale and its beauty grew in fame as naturalists, hikers and scientists began to explore and write about the edge of the Serra Geral.
Among the best-remembered figures in bringing this landscape to light is the Jesuit priest Balduíno Rambo (1905-1961), a gaúcho priest, naturalist and botanist, author of foundational works on the nature of southern Brazil such as 'A Fisionomia do Rio Grande do Sul'. Rambo studied and publicized the flora and the landscapes of the high grasslands and the Serra Geral, helping the region and its araucaria forests to be recognized for their exceptional natural value.
Through the 20th century, expeditions of naturalists, geographers and mountaineers documented the canyons, their walls, their flora and their fauna. That growing body of knowledge, along with an awareness of the importance of protecting the high-altitude Mata Atlântica and the araucaria forests —then under threat from intensive logging— created the climate that would lead, at the end of the 1950s, to the creation of the first national park to safeguard Itaimbezinho and the Aparados da Serra.
The decisive step in protecting Itaimbezinho came in 1959, when the Brazilian government created the Parque Nacional dos Aparados da Serra. It was one of Brazil's first national parks, established at a time when the country was starting to take significant steps on nature conservation. The central aim was to preserve the extraordinary set of canyons on the edge of the Serra Geral —led by Itaimbezinho— along with the high grasslands, the araucaria forests and the rich biodiversity of the high-altitude Mata Atlântica.
The park straddles the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, right on the escarpment where the plateau drops toward the lowlands. Its creation sought to halt the pressure of araucaria logging and agricultural expansion, which threatened one of the most singular landscapes in the south of the country. Over the years, the protected area gained structure for visitors: trails, lookouts, a visitor center and regulated access.
Decades later, in 1992, the neighboring Parque Nacional da Serra Geral was created, extending protection to other canyons in the region, such as Fortaleza and Malacara, which had fallen outside the boundaries of the first park. The two adjoining units today form a large conservation corridor run by ICMBio (the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation). Together they protect not only the canyons but a whole high-altitude ecosystem of enormous value, and they make up one of the main ecotourism destinations in southern Brazil.
With the national parks established, the Cambará do Sul region gradually turned from a quiet ranching enclave on the plateau into one of the great ecotourism destinations of southern Brazil. The fame of Itaimbezinho and Fortaleza canyon drew travelers from all over the country and abroad, and the town built up a supply of pousadas, highland-cooking restaurants, agencies and guides specializing in the trails and the canyons.
That growth in tourism sits alongside the challenge of conservation. The high grasslands and the araucaria forests are part of the Mata Atlântica, one of the most threatened biomes in the world, and the araucaria itself is in a delicate situation after centuries of logging. ICMBio's management of the parks seeks to balance visitor numbers with the protection of this natural heritage: regulated access, marked trails, lookouts with railings and accredited guides for the more demanding trails, such as the Rio do Boi.
Today, visiting Itaimbezinho is also an invitation to value and look after this landscape. The region keeps its rural, gaucho character —mate, churrasco, the ranches, the araucarias cut out against the sky— combined with a growing environmental awareness. The canyons of the Aparados da Serra rank, deservedly, among the great natural wonders of Brazil: a place where deep geology, the history of the highland peoples and the beauty of the high grasslands meet at the edge of a drop hundreds of meters deep.