Among all the things we discovered during our outdoors adventures, I am pretty sure that gorges are on top 3 most visited places by us.
It's not because they are an easy trail because we did explore some that put our lives on risk even more than when we were walking on the mountain ridges, but because you never know what to expect from these.
They can come in peaceful forms like the perfect place for a family trip in nature, but also in advanced forms, the gorges being only the natural shelter of many caves, waterfalls, lakes, and so on.
However, the one from today's post is mostly composed of wooden bridges that will take you from one side of the river to the other one and vice versa, but also of caves that are way too little explored by the tourists who are following those paths.
Since my father was always passionate about caves and I slowly started to understand his feelings while walking in the dark, we knew from the beginning that we are not going to be that type of tourists but actually be more interested in these rather than the gorges themselves.
Happily, you can get with the car pretty close to the entrance of the gorges and there is even improvised a parking lot where you can leave your car with no problem, so as soon as we parked the car and got all our mountain equipment, we've hit the road.
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Right at the entrance, there will be a guide who will sell visiting tickets because the whole area is very well maintained by the mountain lovers with plenty of bridges safely created so no one will risk their lives while walking on them or going up on the iron ladders that will take you to the caves. The price is around 8 RON / 1.62 EUR per adult, which is pretty low considering how many cool things these people did and that there are not even so many tourists who are visiting the gorges to cover their costs.
Anyway, the same guide will also show you on the map the trail you should follow with indications if you should either cross the whole length of the gorges or not because at some point these will become a little bit more challenging than they seem at the beginning and not everyone is ready for this. Luckily, the man noticed that both I and my family are quite used with the mountain trails and received the green flag to explore the whole area, yay!
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There are going to be no less than 9 bridges that will take you from one side of the river to the other one, but the first we had to cross was quite narrow and situated on a pretty big altitude, which represented the right way to stir the adrenaline in our veins.
However, the adrenaline level was also increased by the three small panels we noticed before crossing the bridge which were different than the common ones which are telling you a bit about the fauna of the place. The three squared panels were meant to make tourist aware that they are going to cross some gorges which are quite often frequented by bears and snakes, but which are also not stranger from the falling rocks that get detached from the stone walls.
Funny or not, it's a little bit hard to explore Romania without seeing at least the panels with the bears considering that this country has the biggest population of bears and wolves in Europe, so it was something common for us to meet those signs.
However, no matter for how many times we've see them, I would lie saying that we were not afraid because it's impossible not to feel a shiver going down your spine thinking that you are the one who gets on animals territory and not vice versa so you do the whole visit on your own risk.
But we decided to risk once again. Just like we always do during our trips.
Anyway, not long after we began our journey in the woods, we reached a first intersection of paths, the one we were following going to the left while the one on the right was meant to bring us in front of the first cave of the area.
It's true that there are three caves which are waiting for their tourists, but in reality there are more than one hundred that you can find while walking down the gorges but which are not arranged with ladders and bridges to take you there.
So if you are more of an adventurous spirit, you can easily make your wait to them even if it comes with hanging on the stones and other crazy activities, lol.
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The first cave we explored is known as Meresti Cave or Orbán Balázs and it's also amongst the biggest openings we've seen in a stone wall so far. And we did see quite a lot of caves in Romania.
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Over here you won't find any of the cool stalagmites and stalactites everyone has in their mind whenever they think about a cave, because the natural room formed in the stones has mostly warm air and it has other reasons which are making it stand out in front of the others.
The main reason is that Meresti Cave is not just a beautiful natural formation but the principal shelter for many bats including 19 species which is more than half of the species you can discover on Romania's realms.
In plus, not the whole length of the cave is open to the tourists but only half of it, making the mammals feel safe in all four seasons of the year where each of them comes with new activities for the tiny animals.
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Anyway, while we came with the curiosity to see what this cave hides, we decided to stay a little bit longer for the sake of the view we had from the main room which is also the one with warm air and the favorite place of the bats during the whole year.
There are two more rooms on sides but which can't be accessed too well without proper equipment and a guide because the tunnels get very narrow and require different equipment than the hiking one we had.
After we recharged our batteries and filled our lungs with fresh air, we went all the way down to the intersection we first met and continued our journey that surprised us with another cave in just 2-3 minutes from this part of the trail.
This is amongst the ones that are not open to the tourists due to the lack of arrangements, but both I and my father still wanted to see what's everything about.
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Its opening wasn't as generous as the previous one, nor the rooms or tunnels, but it was still an interesting experience getting to explore a place that is not accessed by too many people. In plus, it brought its contribution to add another drop of adrenaline to make us keep going and explore everything that Gorge of Varghis has to offer to its tourists.
We continued our adventure going up and down on ladders, but especially crossing bridges that never missed a chance to remind us that there shouldn't be more than two people crossing the same bridge at the same time.
However, the most exciting part was to jump on these and make them create waves for which you are never too old to experience again.
On the internet I found the information that there are 9 bridges, but when we visited the gorges back in 2021 they seemed even more than that.
I won't lie saying that I counted these because I did not, but even if you want to do so, you will quickly fall in love with the landscapes and forget on what number you were, so you better enjoy every moment and focus on other details that will create powerful memories.
Anyway, after a little bit more walking, because the path is quite straight with very few inclined surfaces, we did manage to reach another cave which this time it came with more interesting aspects and formations that I'm sure it makes many tourists take pictures of.
First, there are the stone walls which even if they are not coming with stalagmites and stalactites either, they had some gems in their structure which create a powerful glitter once they are touched by a source of light.
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All these details, along with the unfamiliar formations, made us feel closer to becoming part of a fairy tale rather than reality, stepping millions of years back to the times when people were happy having one of these caves where to stay safe and form a family without the needs of the 21st century's generations.
Even though I have no idea what those times really looked like, I still feel the need of living more of a simple life sometimes and keep myself more in the wild parts of nature instead of a room in front of a TV or PC, don't you?
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Anyway, if you thought that this was all about this cave, it surprised us with one more interesting part of it just when we were about to leave, namely, a room from where you can notice two tunnels that made me see them like some nostrils. I liked how they are lightened up by the daylight, but you will still need a flashlight in order to notice its entire structure.
Even if it was already a while since we were chasing the paths from Cheile Vârghişului, we still continued to follow the blue cross marker that was part of our trail so far, reaching a place where some guys were climbing the walls.
Since the structure of the walls is quite rough and without too many bumps, it was sort of an expected activity to be seen, but I'm still very excited when I get to meet this kind of mountain lovers.
We've never practiced rock climbing before except one time when we had to go down on a chain from a rock, but who knows, maybe one day I'll fulfill this desire and return with a post about it!
After we took a short break of 2-3 minutes to watch at those guys, we continued our journey which came with a different bridge than these we crossed before that made me feel it like a more powerful and closer embrace with nature.
This was the longest bridge we crossed on Cheile Vârghişului but also the longest amongst all we've seen so far in Romania.
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The length of the trail (round-trip) is around 8 km and it takes 4-5 hours to complete it depending on how many breaks you take or how much time you spend in the caves. However, we didn't manage to explore the gorges to the fullest because we visited these during a rainy period, and of course, I managed to slip over and get some marks on my body as a memory, so we decided to return to the car still with a smile on our faces for all the things we've seen.
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I've heard lots of opinions that this place is only worth being visited during the autumn when the forest is very colorful and it gives a special emotion seeing it. But just as you can see, we visited Cheile Vârghişului out of that season and there was still plenty to be seen.
Actually, I always thought that there are places which are more suitable to be explored when the colorful blanket is resting over nature but somehow I couldn't imagine these gorges to work better than on a rainy period when the green is so fresh and yet so close to every tourist's heart, so I can easily say that I'm happy we discovered one more less-known place in the mountains of Romania that is worth the attention of the tourists any time of the year.
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In order to reach the gorges you have to make your way to the village with the same name (Vârghiș) by chasing the county road DJ 132 and then follow a paved road for 12 km which will take you closer to the mountains. After this section ends, there are 2 more km needed to be crossed on a forest road but which is pretty decent even during the rainy periods. This is the last hundred of meters until you reach the parking lot I mentioned at the beginning of this post and where the whole adventure begins.
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾
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