Vârghișului Gorges, Perșani Mountains

1. Visitor center (570 m) – under the Rock (595 m)

1 km / 20 minutes / easy / blue cross

From the Visitor Center, which I found on the map as a tourist information center, continue on the road marked with a blue cross, forward, upstream of the Varghis valley. At the entrance to the route, we read the panel with the map of the area and take a group photo. There is also a poster with visiting fees – 5 lei for adults, 3 lei for children / students, 5 lei for cars.

We go through a muddy area next to a fenced property, which leads after about 500 meters to a wide clearing. It is a place with fireplaces and equipped with public toilets, which I think is crowded in the hot season as a result. The calcareous aspect of the relief soon appears before our eyes. We follow the so-called Gorges Path. The river dug its bed through the Jurassic limestones it encountered on the way, forming these gorges. We are at the first bridge over the Varghis River. This, like the others we will meet, are solid and well anchored in the banks. Immediately after the wooden bridge, we find 3 warnings: bears, snakes and falling stones! From another documentary source, I learned that otters also live in the waters of Varghis. From here begins the route in the loop that we will follow. We are at Sub Piatră (under the rock) point, marked 2 on the map.

2. Under the Rock (595 m) – Șura Cailor Cave (650 m)

0.8 km / 30 minutes / easy / blue cross

We continued down the valley, through the gorges. We hit the first sections with light snow and next to a small obstacle we have small balance problems. Will this be the way from now on? It was not a long snowy area, so I regained my courage. Here, somewhere on the right flank as we walk is the Kőcsűr Cave, but there is no signpost to it. We follow the loop of the river. On the shore I photographed the frozen water, a sign that it wasn’t really warm.

We were crossing the second solid bridge after wondering what number was worn by the individual who left footprints in the snow? We are again on the right bank or the left flank, as you wish. The blue cross marking is very good, otherwise you can’t even miss the path. However, I must point out a difference in detail between the physical position of the path on the ground and respectively on the map from the Muntii Nostri application. The path will remain on the right bank longer than it is shown on the mentioned map. On mapy.cz the map is correct. To the right rises the Szechenyi Rock, above which there is also a viewpoint, but who gets there? After another bend of the river, on the left side is the Hotel Spelaeus Cave and a little further ahead, on the right side (on the left bank of the river) is the huge opening of the Orbán Balázs Cave, which we will reach soon. With our eyes to the right to better capture in the picture the large opening of the cave and the Csudalo Stone that rises above it, we soon reach the third bridge, next to which on our side, the right bank, at the horse’s muzzle as they say, we see a another gem, another cave.

It is Șura Cailor Cave or cave no. 8 or Lőcsűr Cave. We climb a little steeply, helped by a safety cable, and take a picture at the entrance to the cave. We light the flashlights and enter the cave. It is a dry, horizontal cave in which I advanced about a hundred meters, maybe more. I did not notice stalactite formations, but I saw some inserts like crystals in the limestone of the cave. We are at point 3 on the map.

3. Șura Cailor Cave (650 m) – Orbán Balázs Cave (650 m)

0.2 km / 10 minutes / medium / yellow band

We leave the cave. Above the cave is the Tower of Csala. Above, on a very steep path from what I read, you can climb to one of the spectacular caves in these gorges, the Tatarlik Cave or Tatarlik, which offers a fierce image of the entrance to the cavity, thanks to the two entrances like 2 eyes between which there is a rocky part, the resulting image looks like a fierce face with 2 huge eyes and an ugly nose. In a way, I’m sorry that we didn’t go up as well, but we still had a lot to visit this day. We return to the river where the third bridge awaits us. As we cross the bridge, 2 options open up: continue on the Path of the Gorge to the left or turn a bit to the right to visit the coolest cave in the gorge. At this point we also meet the yellow band marking. We go back about 200 meters and find ourselves somewhere under the Orbán Balázs Cave. From here we admire the opposite slope that culminates in the peak of Tiva (935 m).

4. Orbán Balázs Cave or Merești Great Cave (650 m)

The Orbán Balázs Cave is excavated in the Rock of Miracles, on the left bank of Varghis. The path goes up 2 rows of metal stairs that facilitate access to the mouth of the cave. We are at point 4 on the map. The Orban Balazs Cave is also known as the Great Cave from Meresti or cave no. 14 from Cheile Varghisului. Until the discovery of the Tausoare Cave in the Rodnei Mountains, it was considered the longest cave in the Eastern Carpathians, measuring about 1.4 km.

We are somewhat in the central area of ​​the Vârghișului Gorges. The Orban Balazs cave has great speleological importance. It consists of two main halls: Sala Mare (the Great Hall) and Sala Fekete Istvan (Hall). Fekete was the speleologist who, in 1835, mapped the cave in such detail that his maps are still valid and used today. The value of the cave is given by the discoveries made, namely fossils of prehistoric man and ursus spelaeus, but also by its population with numerous species of bats, somewhere at the entrance there is a warning to this effect, so one room is closed for this reason.

The cave is quite visited, even if it is not furnished (with the exception of the metal access stairs and one more inside the cave) and not electrified. You can move forward quite easily, without too many obstacles, if you have good flashlights. At one point we pass a metal gate in the middle of the road, but which can be bypassed on both sides. The cave walls are first of all very high. The cave is concretized, but it does not show remarkable formations of stalactites, stalagmites and columns, or we did not notice them. It is dry. At a certain point it narrows, but you can go further, then the underground path becomes wide again. There is an area where it is easy to climb, here is also the ladder. I walked as I walked through the generous cave. I think we have reached quite close to the last room, which seems to be also the largest. About 1 km from the entrance, the water deposited fragments of precious stones in the walls. On the way back, I noticed that just before the main exit, there is a branch to a secondary exit. Besides, the cave has 5 entrances.

*Completion 2022: I heard that the cave can no longer be visited, and the gorges should be entered with a guide!

5. Orbán Balázs Cave (650 m) – branch (620 m)

0.4 km / 15 minutes / medium / yellow band

After exploring in our own way the Great Cave from Meresti, we continue the road through the gorges, which is easy and pleasant, does not raise any problems, the path is clear, firm, marked with a blue cross and a yellow band on this section. We reach another branch of paths, not marked very well. Still ahead through the quay, at the water’s edge on the blue cross and half right up, on the yellow lane.

We walked a little through the quays, because we saw a suspension bridge over the river fixed laterally on the rock for a length of several tens of meters. We return to the previous crossroads and from here we take the yellow line marking as a landmark. We are at point 5 on the map. Violets signal the season we are in.

6. Branch (620 m) – Poiana Pietrii (refuge) (710 m)

0.5 km / 30 minutes / medium, difficult / yellow band

I was climbing, climbing. We gain some altitude and through the forest growing on this steep flank we admire the Varghis gorge, which can be seen further down, further from us. There follows an area with several helping chains and more slippery at the base of a rock, but not dangerous. It resembles the path from the Sirul Stancilor in the Piatra Mare Massif, but in miniature. In fact, we are now climbing Pipasok Hill (745 m). We come out above the wooded area and have the perspective of the peaks that flank the keys. We are in Poiana Pietrii (the Stine Glade), at point 6 on the map. Lunch and rest break for half an hour in the upper saddle where on the right of the path we see a shelter in good condition.

7. Poiana Pietrii (refuge) (710 m) – branch (720 m)

0.35 km / 10 minutes / easy / yellow tape

We restart. The indicators in the saddle seem to be insufficient for orientation. We barely see the next marker somewhere far away on a tree. We have two options. Let’s follow the yellow strip forward until it meets the red dot marking in the upper part of the wide clearing or look for the unmarked shortcut to the right next to the refuge and next to the belvedere point on the peak on the right, which further meets the red dot. We opted for the first option because the wide clearing was covered with snow, only here colco at long distances there was a mark on each tree. I don’t know if when there is no snow there would be some signs on the ground. Anyway, the orientation in the fog raises some problems in this place. I used the map from the Muntii Nostri application and followed the supposed yellow band route until I reached the supposed red dot route. We reached point 7 on the map.

8. Ramification (720 m) – Șura de Piatră path – under the Rock (595 m)

2.1 km / 50 minutes / easy / red dot

From the branch we were guided by the map. We entered the Chapel Path, so called because it passes near the Tatar Chapel, until other red dot signs, which finally confirmed that we were on the right path, on the red dot marking, which will guide us further. From now on we were going to descend through the forest on the red dot on the Koecsuer Path (Șura de Piatră). This leads past the Koecsuer Cave (Șura de Piatră) all the way down to the Varghis valley, along the route followed in the morning, thus closing the loop we set out to complete, right at bridge no. 1. We are at the point Under the Stone, marked 10 on the map.

9. Under the Rock (595 m) – Visitor Center (520 m)

1 km / 20 minutes / easy / blue cross

Somewhere on the left is Izbucul de Jos. We are again on the blue cross at bridge 1 and we leave the quay towards the place where we parked the car, following the road we came on. I counted 15 parked cars, so about 50 tourists must have come to the quays. I finished the route. The last segment of the road is identical to the first, traveled of course in the opposite direction.