the best way to explore these valleys are the many hiking trails that reach all corners of the forest, often giving access to some of the many caves found in the region.

there are many trails in the tijuca forest, with the two most important being the trilha circular externa major archer and the trilha circular interna castro maia - at times overlapping, both trails give a spectacular tour of the forest, reaching many of the most famous points of interest along properly maintained routes with clear signals.

These two trails are concentric, with major archer trail being 35 km long and at a higher altitude then the shorter castro maya track only 15 km long.