The place I'm going to write about today is one of the most beautiful place of the region and has always been on my list. The last time I was there was in 2016, when I spent four days (I think) admiring the beauty of the region all day long.
Red Lake is a natural dam lake in Harghita County, Romania. It is located in the Hășmaș Mountains, on the upper course of the Bicaz River, and lies at the foot of the Hășmașul Mare Peak, near the Bicaz Gorge, at a distance of 26 km (16 mi) from Gheorgheni and 30 km (19 mi) from Bicaz.
The lake formed following the collapse of a slope due to the earthquake of January 23, 1838 at 18:45, measuring 6.9 magnitude on the Richter scale, VIII intensity. The landslide blocked the course of the Bicaz River and the lake formed behind this dam.
At the latest measurements, made in 1987, the lake has a perimeter of 2,830 m (9,280 ft), and covers an area of 11.4676 ha (28.337 acres); the volume of water that accumulates is 587,503 cubic metres (768,425 cu yd). The lake was formed at an altitude of 983 m (3,225 ft), in a depression with a predominant subalpine climate. source
This was a day trip only, unfortunately because we had a guest from another country and time was very limited.
The weather was also not exactly suitable for such an excursion, but we enjoyed it a lot, regardless. I wrote about it in details, here. You can read it as it's a funny one.
Upon arrival, we looked for some free space to park the cars as the place is always packed with tourists, cars, busses, you name it. It's a well known tourist attraction, so no matter when you visit the place, the crows will be there.
The one of the parking lots is next to the lake, so our first destination was obviously the lake.
If you have a close look, the trees in the water are still visible, or what's left of them. The corrosive power of the water made quite a few to disappear already, but there are still plenty in the water. Most likely the lake is unique in this regard as you don't see wooden poles in lakes anywhere.
You can rent a boat for half an hour, or for longer and enjoy rowing on the lake, or you can walk round the lake. We didn't do either as first of all, time was limited, boats were not available yet. Due to the heavy rain before we arrived, all of the boats were wet and those youngsters were trying to wipe them dry. The walk around the lake is a nice project, but you have to know what you're getting yourself into as the road had passages in the woods, can be muddy at times and there's a section, where you have to climb up the hill and most likely there are no 21st century conditions as the main idea is to keep it as close to natural conditions as possible. So the walk around the lake got postponed for our next visit. If you are there, make sure you get your hiking boots and don't miss the walk.
It was disappointing to see that the only bench next to the lake was broken (a long time ago). The day we visited the place was a rainy day, but in full tourist season there are thousands roaming around, families with children, old people as well and there's no decent place to sit for a minute. How much does a piece of wood costs?
On the right side of the lake, there is a small playground for kids and a parking lot as well.
Beyond the playground, there's the place I call money spending place. On the left there are several small restaurants, where you can taste the traditional Transylvanian food, specific to this zone. Due to the rain, most of these restaurants were half empty, but when the weather is good, you need a bit of luck to get a table.
The well known lángos and kürtös can't be missing. We had lángos with garlic, sour cream and grated cheese and was excellent. In the heat of the moment, I forgot to take photos, which i regret till this day, but what can I do. Prices are a bit higher than in other places, I was expecting that, but the lángos for example is at the same price as in any other cities in the festive season.
On the opposite side there are the souvenir shops, which was a huge disappointment to me.
These souvenir shops are not about what the local artisans are creating, but about making profits. I did not take many photos as I don't want to promote Chinese flip flops or all kinds of cheap kitschy crap. The only thing I bought were two magnets, but choosing was a difficult task. Photoshop is known by these vendors as well and you can hardly find a nice one.
Instead of walking round the lake, we decided to go to the Bicaz Canyon on foot. It is a good few kilometers walk, around 5 or 6 if I'm not mistaken, but it's the only way of admiring the beauty this place has to offer.
Besides walking and admiring the beauty of nature at this part of the world, you have some other opportunities if you're an adventurer. You can slide down here, if you have the courage and test out some adrenaline rush in case this still means a challenge for you.
As far as accommodation is concerned, you can choose from luxurious hotels you're going to see in the upcoming photos, and small wooden cabins, that are more traditional around here, depending on your preference.
Wooden bridges are very common in this area. Not all are this stylish, you can see those traditional ones made of beams, which I can appreciate more.
As i mentioned, when we got to the lake, it was raining, then the rain stopped. We had a snack and started walking towards the Bicaz Canyon. At some point it started raining again, but this was short lived as it stopped again and this was the photo I took after the rain stopped. We were happy as it made walking more enjoyable. However, if you have some experience in the mountains, you can see several warning signs. It was heavily overcast, foggy as well and some of the peaks were not even visible.
There's a creek along the road, which goes down the canyon, till the end. As you can see, the water was clear here.
I've been here several times, but have rarely seen the mountain steaming like this. This phenomenon only happens when the temperature is changing and there's enough humidity. It's lovely to look at it in my opinion.
This wooden cabin has been here since forever and it's like a milestone on the road. Everyone knows it and it's part of the scenery I suppose.
You can rent a wooden cabin like this and enjoy the gorgeous view every single day.
This is the road you have to walk on. Here it was raining already again and I had to take the photos on the go, holding an umbrella. It's an art, what can I say 😁
This is where it gets interesting. The road is narrow and pretty curvy, it is carved in the mountains, so you have to drive very close to the rock and speeding is not an option here.
The water level in the creek started to rise already as the rain was more intense.
And pretty soon it looked like a dark latte.
This is where the road starts to be curvy and if you're driving, you need to be careful especially if you meet a bus on the road. There's no room for errors here.
This is the narrowest point of the canyon. There's room for only one car and the visibility is ... zero. You drive slowly and then you see. if there's a vehicle coming from the other direction, one has to stop, give priority to the other, or even pull back.
What you see here is the peak called altar stone and it's the most spectacular view in my opinion. On the top of the peak there's a cross, that's why the name. Honestly, I've never seen it steaming like that. Every time i visited the place, the weather was nice and sunny, so I'm glad I got the occasion to witness the steamy mountains as well. I didn't mind the rain at all.
The Bicaz Gorge (Romanian: Cheile Bicazului, Hungarian: Békás-szoros) is a gorge in Romania, located in the north-east part of the country, in Neamț and Harghita counties. It is situated in the central part of the Hășmaș Mountains, and it is part of the Cheile Bicazului-Hășmaș National Park.
The gorge was excised by the waters of the river Bicaz and it serves as a passageway between the Romanian provinces of Moldova and Transylvania.
It is a noted location to see the wallcreeper, an uncommon cliff-dwelling bird.
National road DN12C passes through the gorge. The road along the 8 kilometres (5 mi) of ravines, often in serpentines with rock on one side and a sheer drop on the other, is one of the most spectacular drives in the country. Also within the gorge is Lacul Roșu (the Red Lake), with its traditional cabins, hotels, and its famous lake (situated at 980 m (3,220 ft) altitude) caused by a landslide in the 19th century.
Cheile Bicazului is one of the main rock climbing sites in Romania. source
Initially I wanted to take some photos of the wall, where climbers use to practice, but in these weather conditions that was out of the question.
Down below the road got pretty curvy again.
After that comes the tunnel. This tunnel was necessary as it's the only way to cross under the mountain.
This was the old tunnel, which functioned for some time, but the ceiling of it was so low, buses and trucks could not pass, so the new one was needed.
This is the last curvy part of the road and the most exciting one. Here it was already raining heavily, so taking photos was not easy, I did what I could.
There was no blue sky, just the scary weather.
Here it was pouring already, so we decided to stop at that parking lot and wait for the cars to pick us up. As the road is so narrow, the only place you can stop is these dedicated parking lots.
Due to the heavy rain and the fog, the altar stone was not even visible anymore, from where we were standing.
We were lucky to get this far as it's almost the end of the road. I think there was one 1km left of the road, where there are the souvenir shops and the larger parking lots for the tourist busses.
This was my wet adventure on Sunday. Despite the rain, we had a lot of fun and don't regret one thing. The photos could have been better as a clear blue sky would have helped me a lot, but I'm still thankful to mother nature for this experience. At least I've been able to see this beautiful part of my country, when it was raining.
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