Vila Velha State Park is the region's signature attraction, about 22 km from central Ponta Grossa on the road to Curitiba. Over millions of years, wind and water have carved the Furnas sandstone into dozens of extraordinary columns, arches, and towers rising from the plateau — some reaching 15 metres high and shaped into forms that the imagination readily turns into animals, faces, and ruins.
The park has three main circuits. The sandstone formations are the main event, accessible on a well-maintained trail of about 1.5 km that loops past the most striking rocks. The Furnas are two vast natural wells bored vertically into the sandstone, the larger nearly 100 metres deep, reached on a separate walk. A third area, the Lagoa Dourada, is a quiet lake with a backdrop of forested cliffs. A small cable car crosses the gorge near the lagoon.
The park is manageable in half a day if you focus on one circuit, but most visitors with their own transport do all three. Go early morning for the best light on the formations and to avoid the tour groups that arrive by mid-morning.