Lake Bucura
The largest glacial lake in Romania.
Igor.skokan at English Wikipedia — Public domain · Mihaibursesc — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gugalcrom123 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gugalcrom123 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Not on the marked trails; yes for anything beyond them. The main routes in Retezat, Piatra Craiului and the Bucegi are marked with coloured blazes on rock and trees, maps are available, and walking them needs no guide for anyone with mountain experience. But the weather turns fast above 2,000 metres, fog hides the marks, phone coverage is patchy, and the bears are real. Tell someone your plan, carry a paper map rather than relying on a phone, and start early. For overnights in the mountains, unmarked routes, or winter: a local guide, without argument.
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Retezat is **Romania's first national park**, established in 1935, and an internationally recognised biosphere reserve. It is also the finest part of the Romanian Carpathians for anyone who walks in mountains. What distinguishes it is the lakes: some **eighty glacial lakes** filling the hollows that ice cut into granite, the largest of them **Bucura**, the largest glacial lake in Romania, and **Zănoaga** the deepest. Around them stand more than twenty peaks above 2,200 metres, the highest Peleaga at 2,509. The wildlife is complete in a way that is rare in Europe: brown bears, wolves, lynx, chamois and marmots, along with plants found nowhere else. In the south of the park the **Gemenele scientific reserve** is closed entirely to visitors to protect its habitat. **This is not a half-day visit.** No road crosses it, and reaching the lakes is a mountain walk of four to eight hours there and back from the nearest car park. **About 107 km from Sibiu** — it needs an overnight.
The largest glacial lake in Romania.
Bears, wolves, lynx and chamois in a complete system.
Retezat mountains, Hunedoara county