Getting to explore some foreign lands of your home country was always one of my best experiences, but the whole adventure takes a completely new perspective when nature is cooperating in bringing you some unique gems ready to conquer a little bit more of your heart.

Visiting Bănița Gorges came as a bonus after we thought we have seen everything when we got to walk through the water and between the stones while exploring Crivadia Gorges.
It was that kind of moment when we were already euphoric enough to consider that we can call ourselves satisfied by letting a day come to an end visiting a single place instead of 4, or even 5, how we were used to after a long way back home and having to get half wet while exploring the beauty of nature, but we weren't even close to guessing how our roadtrip from 2019 was going to end.
Bănița Gorges was not our last stop of the day but just the intermediary one which made us discover one more treasure that I have already presented a while ago - Peștera Bolii (Bolii Cave).
And if you have checked out that post, you will remember the part where I asked you to keep in mind the architecture and formation of the portal that was the entrance to the cave, because that kind of stone walls, will make the subject of today's post but presented in a unique way that nobody could ever dream about.

And we are talking about a 250 meters long journey between another canyon but which this time the main attractions are the rocks and their shape which make the river seem like a tiny rollercoaster and whose level doesn't exceed the middle of your leg. Hence the saying: "Strong essences are kept in small bottles."

Compared to Crivadia Gorges where the touristic attraction is not so friendly with claustrophobic people and where the water flow is split into 3 sections going deeper and faster with each step made, the canyon from Bănița is way larger and the formations of the rocks offer to the people the chance to avoid walking through the water by following the excavation of the stone walls.

The real length of Bănița Gorges is of 1,5 km but only a small part of it is represented by the beautiful formations presented in the article, which describes a real treasure of nature and a great speleological potential to be explored by people.
The origins of the curvy walls are pretty common, namely, Mesozoic limestones , but the real point of interest is their shape and colour which makes the whole place create a very picturesque landscape that also represents one of the paths of access that lead to Peștera Bolii (Bolii Cave).
More than that, the levels of erosion and the concrete runoff from the slopes create the impression that you are in a cave, but which somehow is not sunken in darkness and low temperatures due to the sun rays that still find the way to bring some light into the beautiful canyon.
But no matter for how many times you will return to this place to rediscover it and refresh your memories from it, you'll never find it show up the same way due to the railway line located on the left side behind the vegetation, that creates powerful reverberations to the stones that only nature knows for how long we are going to enjoy their majesty until a landslide or falling stones will happen.

Even during the hot seasons when the flow of the water is very low, there are some areas where some holes have been formed under the water, making it reach 1 meter depth. Usually, the water is clear enough to see how deep it is but if you are going to visit it after a rainy period or when the water is muddy, I'd suggest using a stick to measure the depth so you are not surprised when you find a deeper area.

I personally used walking sticks to also maintain my balance, and decided to go through the water instead of climbing the stone walls because my boots were already wet from the previous exploration to Crivadia Gorges.

Though, between the two sides of the canyon, the one from the right is always higher, steeper and with more details and elements that can be found on the opposite, reaching even more than 15 meters height and where the explanation is pretty simple since the one from the left has to split its beauty between the wilderness of nature and the effects created by every single train that is crossing the area, while the one from the right has the whole time in the world to evolve and conquer new hearts.
Even if the images present some unusual sculptures that might make you feel like being lost on some foreign paths where the mystery is at its home, the whole journey (round-trip) takes just 40 minutes and since it's a pretty unknown place of the country you can take all the time needed to recharge your batteries in the middle of nature without having the silence perturbed by too many tourists.
The whole landscape formed is entirely created by the Bănița river which never stops flowing, leaving behind nothing else but a quite deep sinusoidal aisle which shows how big the water level was a while ago.

Of course, I'd still not suggest exploring this place in a different season that summer because you might need a boat and some great swimsuits in order to properly enjoy the experience.

Through the many formations that you'll discover into the canyon, some of the most common ones are those having the shape of huge spoons and ladles. Since most of the time you have some enormous stone walls over your head, there are rumours saying that Bănița Gorges used to be a cave hundreds of years ago but where the ceiling collapsed creating what we are seeing today.

However, history is not really too important right now, since we get to see some great formations that are unique in Romania and which are making the present felt like a great time to be alive and explore the unknown lands of my home country 😃

Bănița Gorges are located in the village with the same name (Bănița) from Hunedoara county, on just 8 km away from Petrosani, making the connecting between Petrosani and Simeria, and it's very close to the gorges discovered in my previous post.

To reach the gorges you have to be very careful while you are driving on the national road DN66 which often gets over some bridges, because one of the rivers you'll cross is called Bănița, and right after it there is an abandoned filling station on the left from where it starts a forest road to a parking lot where you can leave the car and follow the way to the gorgeous canyon.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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