Access coming from:

- Manteigas (± 15.5 km) - N338. On the way up, on your left follow the signs to "Poço do Inferno / Serra de Baixo" and "Chão de Celorico / Chão das Almas".

- Covilhã (± 20 km) – N339 and N338. On the way down, turn right following the signs to “Poço do Inferno / Serra de Baixo” and “Chão de Celorico / Chão das Almas”.

GPS: 40.343611, -7.555000

The area of the Lagoa Seca (Dry Lagoon) is one of the most interesting places of Estrela mountain, from a geomorphological point of view, being very important for the study of the glacial dynamics of the Zêzere river valley. We are in a wide gate of gentle slope that makes contact between the upstream sector of the Zêzere valley (to the west) and the riverhead of Beijames stream (to the east). To the southwest one sees the Torre plateau, well individualized by an abrupt slope. To the west, on the other side of the deep Zêzere valley, lies Candeeira valley and, to the northwest, Penhas Douradas. To the south, the Alto da Pedrice and, to the north, the small plateau of Curral da Nave.

Lagoa Seca is on the border between the glaciated and non-glaciated areas. In the westernmost part of this gate there is a great accumulation of blocks, some quite large. This cluster is linearly arranged, somewhat arcuately, in a SSW-NNE direction, following the Zêzere river valley. Seen from the air, one notices several arcs of blocks, arranged almost parallel to each other. These accumulations are lateral moraines, deposited by the Zêzere glacier, in a phase near the maximum glacier and witness a filling of more than 300 m of ice, filling up the upstream sector of the Zêzere valley. In the Lagoa Seca there was even an ice passage from the Zêzere basin to the Beijames valley, which would have been going on for a short time, because to the east of the gate there are no large accumulations of moraines, only a few blocks and thin deposits of till.

It is easy to imagine this whole area without vegetation, with a large ice cap occupying the plateau zones to the west and a great glacier tongue descending the Zêzere valley, caused by the ice coming from the Candeeira valley.

After the ice melting on this sector remained the moraine arches seen now. Among these there are poorly drained sectors that were occupied by small lagoons, now without water and filled by finer sediments and organic matter, hence the name of this place: Lagoa Seca (dry lagoon).

Glacier - mass of ice formed by the recrystallization of snow that flows forward, or has flowed at some time in the past.

Moraine – rock accumulation deposited primarily by the direct action of a glacier.

Till – unstratified deposit of sediments, formed by elements with different sizes transported and deposited by a glacier.