The Zărnești gorge
A level path between vertical walls, good for families.
bwelter — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Marek Ślusarczyk (Tupungato) Photo gallery — CC BY 3.0 · xulescu_g — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Xulescu g — CC BY-SA 4.0
Romania holds the largest brown bear population in Europe outside Russia, and the possibility is real in this area specifically. The rules are simple: walk in a group and make moderate noise on the trail, because a bear will move away if it hears you early; carry no open food; avoid dawn and dusk; and never approach a cub, because its mother is close. If you see a bear, do not run and do not shout — back away slowly while facing it. The greater practical danger is not wild bears but roadside ones habituated to people — **do not feed them and do not stop to photograph them**, which many people do on the Transfăgărășan road.
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Piatra Craiului — the king's rock — is a limestone range west of Brașov, and its shape is what sets it apart: **a narrow stone blade twenty-five kilometres long** rising abruptly from the hills around it to 2,238 metres, its crest in many places only a few metres wide. The formation is rare in the Carpathians, and has made the park home to plants found nowhere else — best known the Piatra Craiului pink, which grows only here. It holds brown bears, chamois and wolves, and is among Europe's most important strongholds for bears. For visitors there are two entirely different levels. The first is the easy walk through the **Zărnești gorge** — a narrow valley with vertical walls and a level path that suits families, and the best-known part of the park. The second is the traverse of the crest itself, a hard multi-day mountain route on an exposed edge **suited only to the experienced**. The park is free, and its nearest entrance at Zărnești is 30 km from Brașov.
A level path between vertical walls, good for families.
An exposed edge crossed only by the experienced.
West of Brașov, Southern Carpathians