Everyone who rides on São Miguel eventually ends up at this lay-by, and they all take the same photograph. Vista do Rei looks down into the caldera of Sete Cidades from its western rim, and what you see is a giant green bowl with two lakes lying side by side in the bottom, one blue and one green, a pretty village between them and a neat white church with its spire. The viewpoint takes its name from King Carlos I, who is said to have admired the view on a royal visit at the start of the twentieth century.
Behind you stands a half-ruined building that was once meant to be a grand hotel, never quite finished and now sitting in the weeds with its empty windows. It has become part of the place, and in cloud it looks properly haunted. On the other side of the road hydrangeas form long blue and pink hedges in July and August, flowering so thickly that the road feels like a corridor of flowers.
The weather up here deserves respect. The Azores are famous for having four seasons in a day, and the rim of the crater collects cloud like a bowl collects soup. You can arrive in sunshine and find the lakes gone, then wait ten minutes and watch them reappear. Patience pays, and so does an early start, before the tour buses and the afternoon mist. The ride along the rim is lovely: smooth tarmac with good grip when dry, easy bends, grass and cows on the shoulders, and mild gradients. Watch for wet surfaces and sudden fog, and give the cattle plenty of room.
Do not expect services here. There is a small stand sometimes selling drinks, but food, fuel and a proper stop are better found elsewhere. Ponta Delgada, the capital, is about twenty-five minutes' ride away and has everything, while the smaller villages of Mosteiros and São Vicente have basic shops. Fill the tank before you climb, because distances in the west of the island are longer than they look on the map.
The Azores sit on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the lakes occupy an old volcanic crater, which is why the landscape feels so tidy and so wild at once. Linger a little, listen for wind and cowbells, and let the clouds decide when to open.