Piatra Craiului Mountains

On the day after Christmas, I went with a local guide to the Piatra Craiului mountains. I hiked about 13 kilometers in total and a large portion of that was hiking through snow. Because it was winter time I wasn't able to reach the top of the mountain range. To do that I would need mountaineering skills that I do not yet have. The highest point I reached was the Curmătura cabin at about 1400 meters and that still had fantastic views. While the views were great, part of what I enjoyed most about this hike was just being immersed in the mountainous, snow covered, landscape and forests.

Doing this hike in Piatra Craiului national park was the entire reason for why I left Bucharest on Christmas. I had tried to research good hiking options in this region, but this was a little difficult. There wasn't much good information online about where I could go, what good hiking options existed, and how I could get there. Added to this complexity, was the need to find a hike that I could do in the winter, as some hiking areas would require special mountaineering skills at this time of year. I decided to hire a local guide and this was a huge blessing. My guide was absolutely wonderful, she had a wealth of information about the local area, and she was able to guide me on a route that I would not have been able to manage by myself.

My guide parked the car close to where we would finish the day, and then we walked for a kilometer or so along the valley road to the start of our track. Even here I was already excited to be embarking on this journey, and I like how tranquil the winding road looks with the snow all around.

The first part of the hike was through the Prăpăstiile Zărneștilor gorge. This gorge was cut through limestone rocks. There were sheer cliffs on either side and at multiple points the gorge was quite narrow. I tried to capture the gorge with my camera but none of these photos do it justice.

Part of the wonder was that the gorge was all around me. But the lens I had was not wide enough to capture all of the gorge in any one picture. Each of the three pictures above were taken at different points in the gorge as I was walking through it, in them you can see the path snaking its way through the narrows sections. I selected these vertical frame pictures as I felt this format better captured the gorge's scale.

While not the best picture, this one does give an indication of just how high the walls of the gorge were in places. On the bottom, towards the right, you can see the hiking trail, and then, also on the right, just barely fitting in frame, is the top of the cliff.

A direct picture of a section of the gorge wall. I like how here you can see the layers of strata within the rock.

After passing through the gorge, we started going properly up the mountain slope. Often the trail would pass over terrain like what's pictured above. The trail would steadily go up the hill, but diagonally to the slope, which was nice because otherwise it would have been a very steep climb.

I like this picture that shows the path going forward with a snow covered landscape mottled with sunlight and shadow.

This picture was taken looking back and down from where I was on the hill. The rocks were the main focus and, while not perfect, you can get a bit of a sense of the valley that was to my left.

We made it to a small clearing. I loved how perfect the snow look and how the pine needles rested so gently on the snow.

A close up of the snow covered in little pine needles.

I was absolutely loving this little clearing, and my guide was chuckling because she new what was coming next.

Just a little bit further, there was a massive mountain meadow where for the first time I had some proper views of the Piatra Craiului mountains. The above panorama is 3 photos stitched together.

From this clearing I could see two sections of the Piatra Craiului range. On the left was the large main range and on the right was a smaller range which is at a nearly 90 degree angle compared to the main range. In the middle there is a saddle and just before the saddle is the Curmătura cabin, our destination.

A close up of the main range of the Piatra Craiului mountains. These mountains look so amazing, I was so excited to see them.

We made our way around the edge of the meadow. Here the path followed a small mountain creek for a hundred meters or so and we had to cross the creek numerous times.

This is also where I took the feature image for this post. While you can't see the actual creek in the picture you can see the indentation in the snow where the creek is. Looking down you can get a sense of how the creek would flow downhill, into the image, and then further down the mountain.

Far of in the background of the previous image you can see another mountain range. Here is a close up of it from this angle. These mountains are the Bucegi range and I hiked there the previous day on the other side of those mountains.

As we hiked around the meadow I was able to capture another angle of the secondary range of the Piatra Craiului mountains.

The next section of the hike was the steepest, with the path going almost directly uphill. and it had the deepest snow. This picture is looking down the path where I had just walked up and you can see just how deep the snow is by the trench created from all the previous hikers. My rough estimation is that the snow was about fifty centimeters deep.

Again this picture was taken looking back from where I had just been walking. At this point we were nearly up to the cabin and with this clearing I could see further, getting a bit of a view.

I took this picture from the cabin. I wanted to include both this picture and the previous one as I noticed they were taken at pretty much the same angle, just at different elevations. I found this interesting as comparing the mountains in both pictures you can notice how the elevation changes effects the image composition.

This is the Curmătura cabin and we stopped here for lunch. The cabin had a small shop where food and coffee is available for purchase. There were many other hikers who had stopped here for lunch, we found a table inside where I had a coffee and this traditional apple pie.

I didn't want to take a full picture of the inside as I would have felt rude taking a picture of random people. Hopefully these pictures can give you a bit of an idea of what it's like.

The window and wall were both next to the table where we ate lunch. They still had a Christmas tree up and there was a cat, just chilling by the hearth. Apparently it lives in the cabin.

Finally there is a picture of the apple pie, and let me tell you, it was good! If you ever find yourself in this cabin in the mountains of Romania, you need to try the pie. The pie has a message inside it, similar to a fortune cookie, the one I received was from Confucius. It said "wherever you go, go with all your heart" and that is very applicable to me in my current life as a digital nomad.

Another image of the view from the cabin.

Because of where the cabin is situated on the mountain, it was really hard to get a picture of the main range. Partly because of how close the cabin is, the main range of Piatra Craiului dominates the scene. I hope the image can indicate just how much the mountains rose behind the cabin, I had to crane my neck to see the top.

Near the cabin there was a spring where hikers can fill up their water bottles. The water was safe to drink, it was fresh from the mountains.

There was also a St. Bernard chilling in the snow next to the cabin.

From the cabin, we went back to the car by a different route. The first part of that route was going through another forested area. I learnt that in Romania the different tracks have a coloured symbol (circle, cross, or line) on a white background, and these symbols are painted along the track to mark the way. Can you spot the track marker in the above image?

We passed the large meadow again but this time on the other side, and further up the mountain slope. I took so many versions of the above picture trying to capture the right composition with the trees, meadow, forest, and mountains in the background; I struggled to try and find the right version, but I think this one is really good. Walking past this area, I recognised the hut in the image as the same one I saw earlier in the day, when I was walking at the base of the meadow.

I had to share a close up of this pine cone that was positioned perfectly in the snow.

We came to another large open meadow. I think this slope faced the sun more hence more of the snow was already melted. This angle shows the Bucegi mountains on the horizon (where I was the previous day).

Taken in the same meadow, but looking back at the main range of the Piatra Craiului mountains. This is one of the best views I had of the main range and it would also be my last. After this meadow the path would continue through the forest all the way to the car. I really enjoyed walking through here, I had beautiful views of mountains both in front of me and behind, both near and far.

One of the cool things I learnt from my guide was how to tell the difference between a spruce and a fir tree. I sort of forgot it slightly so I may get the next few sentences wrong. Many of the forests we walked through were an invasive spruce species while a fir tree was rarer to see. This here is a picture of a tree I identified as a fir tree, because it has a flatter top while a spruce normally has a more pointy top.

This picture was taken as we left the large meadow to re-enter the forest. This final part of the journey was quite steep at points so I was glad to be walking down this way rather than walking up.

In this final section we walked through a beech forest. Here much of the snow had already melted and there were still significant deposits of leaves from autumn. It was a really nice change of pace from all the snow filled spruce forests.

We were not far back to the car when we ran into this dog again. I had seen this dog previously on the way up the mountain. He lives here in the national park and every day he will join a hiking group and walk with them through the mountain. This is a dog that takes people for walks 😄. Apparently this is quite common in Romania.

Well that concludes an extensive post about one of my best days in Europe. I absolutely loved being out in nature and seeing real proper mountains. I also want to give a huge shout out to my guide, she was absolutely amazing and truly made the day what it was. I would definitely recommend getting a local guide if you ever want to hike in an unfamiliar area.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 23rd of January 2024

Please comment below if you have any questions or thoughts on any pictures.