Piatra Craiului Natural Park

Declared a nature reserve in 1938, Piatra Craiului Natural Park provides some of the most stunning landscapes in Romania.

Daniel Onea, 11.07.2013, 13:05

Today we have invited Mircea Verghelet, the director of Piatra Craiului Natural Park to join us on a visit to the area and speak about some of its tourist attractions. Piatra Craiulu Natural Park is located in central Romania, in the Southern Carpathians, around 200 km north of Bucharest. The park stretches along one of Romania’s most spectacular mountain ridges. For its rich wild life and plant species, the area was declared a nature reserve in 1938. The park receives 100,000 visitors every year. The director of Piatra Craiului Natural Park Mircea Verghelet tells us about the walking routes available in the park.

Mircea Verghelet: “We marked all the routes again at the beginning of 2000, when a special body was created for the administration of the park. We also make sure markers and signs are in place. Besides, we work with two mountain rescue services from Zarnesti and Campulung, which cover the whole park. Also, two years ago we restored the shelter on Virfu Ascutit mountain, while the other shelters in the area are in very good condition. Tourists who are familiar with Piata Craiului know this. We have managed to replace all the old shelters with modular ones, made of glass fibre, and even built two new shelters. Access to the park costs 5 lei for a 7-day stay. This fee can also be paid via text message. We’ll soon put in place ticket selling machines near the entry to the park. We’re currently working on a system to allow visitors to purchase tickets online, on the park’s website. The money we raise through these fees is used for maintenance of the park’s tourist infrastructure.”

Piatra Craiului Natural Park affords its visitors some truly beautiful views, including steep slopes and mountains in its western part. There are spectacular gorges, both to the north, near Brasov, namely the Zarnesti Gorges, but also to the south, in Dimbovita county. Piatra Craiului Mountains provide some of the most difficult trekking paths. The slopes are very steep and the terrain rocky in many parts. You need appropriate clothing, including strong hiking boots and a raincoat. You need to take enough water with you because this is a limestone area with very little water sources. Also, make sure you don’t stray from the marked routes. Tourists’ safety is in fact the main concern of the park administrators, says Mircea Verghelet.

Mircea Verghelet: “We have been trying to prevent accidents and have been promoting the use of the marked routes among our visitors. The latter is in fact a legal requirement laid down in the law on protected areas. Straying away from the marked route is punishable by law with a fine. According to the data from the Mountain Rescue Services, around 90% of the deadly accidents in Piatra Craiului was the result of tourists straying away from the marked routes. We strongly advise and recommend tourists to stick to these routes. In the more difficult areas there are also cables tourists can use for safety. There are also shelters all along the marked routes. Piatra Craiului is like no other mountain in Romania. It’s like a labyrinth and if you’re not familiar with the terrain and lose the marked path, you’re very likely to find yourself in trouble.”

Piatra Craiului is a very popular place for mountain climbers. The Zarnesti Gorges, for example, is full of vertical walls good for climbing. Romania’s best climbers, some of whom have climbed the Himalayans, come here to train. There are also routes suitable for everybody, routes that take you where the chamois lives and where you can see the edelweiss. The administrators of the park have also designed special activities for tourists.

Mircea Verghelet: “We’re currently running a sectoral environmental programme and one of the activities included in the programme is raising public awareness. We have designed a number of theme routes related to this topic. Also, we will build four information centres at the main entrances and complete works on the visitors’ area at the Zarnesti information centre, hoping the centre will be open for visitors next season. Together with two partner NGOs, last year we carried out two small-scale projects to put in place two boards. The first board, which is called the Dwarfs’ Path, is located between the village of Magura and the Zarnesti Precipices, while the second, called the Story of the Mountain Village, is located in the villages of Magura and Pestera.”

Responsible tourism based on respect for nature is the priority of the Piatra Craiului Natural Park management.

Mircea Verghelet.: “From what we’ve seen lately, tourists’ attitude is improving. While in the late 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s we had big problems with tourists, attitudes towards nature have gradually changed in recent years, perhaps also as a result of our awareness raising activities, the boards we have put in place and the materials and tourist maps we distribute or sell to visitors.”

If you visit the villages around the Piatra Craiului Natural Park you will have the chance to meet some extraordinary craftsmen working in wood and sample some of the region’s exquisite traditional dishes.