Joaca Saddle

I went back to the Piatra Craiului mountains on Saturday the 10th of February to complete another hike. A bit south to where I hiked last time, there was Joaca saddle (șaua Joaca in Romanian), a saddle in the foot hills of the main Piatra Craiului range, and I was told from that saddle there are amazing views of the main range.

I was able to take an Uber to hotel Nobillis which has the closest paved road to the national park. From there I had to walk about a kilometer on a dirt road to get to the starting point. Although mud road might be a better term as the road was incredibly muddy from all the melting snow.

The path went almost directly west from the starting point up through the hills to Joaca saddle. In the above image, you can see the high peaks of the main rage just peeking between the hills on the horizon.

Just before the saddle, there was a large clearing. This was the first open view I had of the main range. In this area I loved how the melting snow was giving way to the beautiful yellow grass.

This was the last stretch of forest before I made it to the saddle. The trees blocked out quite a bit of the light, and this section of track especially felt like I was walking in a mythical forest. (Bonus points if you can tell me what kind of marking I was following on this stretch of the hike)

I took this picture as I was exiting the forest, with șaua Joaca just ahead. The mountains loomed large before me as I emerged from the forest.

And here is the view from șaua Joaca looking up at the main range. In both images, if you look closely, you can see the sign marking the saddle with directions to the next way-points. The Piatra Craiului main range makes a line going roughly north to south (more like north north east to south south west). In my previous hike I had been closer to the northern end of the range, so most of my pictures of the range were taken looking southwards. Here I was right in the middle of the national park, almost equidistant from the northern end of the range to the southern end. The result was what you see above, a direct view of the highest peaks on the range, right in the middle. The second picture (on the right) was taken with my widest zoom and it could not capture the full range, for that I would need a panorama.

While not the greatest quality, this panorama does give you a little bit of an idea of the view I had, it was amazing.

From this point, I could have returned back by the same way I came but there was another route I could take, by going south first following the ridge, before returning in a north east direction to the start.

Here is a close up of the main range that highlights the sheer gradient of these mountains. One day I would love to hike to the top of the ridge, probably in summer time when there is no danger of avalanches.

The southward path had fewer travelers, and I think I was the first one to walk it that day as I couldn't see any fresh footprints in the snow, all of them looked at least a day old. This section of the track had no footprints, at first I thought that there would be no tracks the entire way but I think this section was just an alternate path and I went down the one less traveled.

This was the view I had when I stopped to pray and spend some time in worship.

I continued to have more views of the main range as I walked along the ridge. I took a picture of the range at pretty much every clearing. The photos above were from the last and largest clearing I walked through before entering a forest.

And another panorama from that spot.

And another close up, which is of the same part of the range as the previous close up but further south on the path so it shows a different angle, especially in the foothills.

I crossed the clearing to the other side of the ridge I was walking along. As I did, there I passed this old abandoned hut that I thought looked pretty magnificent portrayed with the Piatra Craiului range in the background.

And yes I was a little worried about the dark clouds over the mountains but thankfully it didn't rain or snow. So the clouds were just there to make my images more awesome.

And here is a series of pictures I entitled: Walking Through the Forest. There weren't any views here but the forest kept changing as I walked through it. With these images I tried to capture how the atmosphere changed as I walked along this trail.

Once I exited the forest I was on the other side of the ridge and had a clear view of the Bucegi mountains far in the distance. From here I would walk down into the valley and return back to the starting point. I love the scenery in this photograph but especially the cloud structure above the mountains looks so fantastic, almost like they are forming a halo for the mountains.

As I walked down the hill, I constantly had a view of the valley landscape that was dotted with houses. I believe these houses would have been at the edge of Șirnea village.

I took this photo from the top of a hill near the road. From this point I would head back to the starting point by following tracks in the valley, going up and down smaller hills.

Some of the farms I passed had these great big stacks of hay. There were a few times I would pass a farm with people doing some work, and also a couple of pens with sheep and other farm animals.

The return leg of the journey was a mixture of terrain. Part of it I walked along paved roads, part on dirt (mud) roads, and part on small footpaths. Part of the track was through forested regions in the national park, other parts were in open clearings and close to nearby farms.

This is one of the final pictures I took at the end of my hike. The big building in the center is the Nobillis hotel, where I started. I love how at the end of my walk I could once again see the main range looming high and large on the horizon.

Here I learnt that while I could easily get an Uber out to the country getting one back to the city was impossible, the app kept saying there were no drivers available. Thankfully I was able to ask the hotel concierge and they provided me with the number of a local taxi driver who took me back to Brașov.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 12th of February 2024

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