Grunas Waterfall
About 25 m, under an hour's walk.
Tom.whitehead337 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Liridon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mariaperrett — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Liridon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anna Ilieva-Alikaj — CC BY-SA 4.0
Theth National Park covers the upper Shala valley in the Albanian Alps around Theth, a scattered village at 750 to 950 metres. Peaks ring it, including Arapi, whose south face is considered the Balkans' highest rock wall, and Jezerca (2,694 m), the range's highest. Created in 1966 over 2,630 hectares, the park has been part of the Albanian Alps National Park, Albania's largest, since 2022. Tradition says families moved up from the lower valley to keep their Catholic faith; local histories cite a 1485 Ottoman register counting seven houses. Edith Durham put Theth at some 180 houses in High Albania (1909), struck by its isolation. Under the Kanun, the highlands' customary law, men caught in blood feuds sheltered in the Koçeku family's Lock-in Tower while their families sought a settlement. The tower, reputedly four centuries old, holds a small exhibition; the village church dates from 1892. The Grunas waterfall (about 25 m) is under an hour's walk away. At Ndërlysaj, about 5 km down the valley by road, the Black River has carved rose-coloured rock into natural baths; about an hour's walk upstream lies the Blue Eye, a deep pool. A marked trail crosses the Valbona Pass to Valbona. Theth lies about 70 km from Shkodër by a road over the Thore Pass, fully paved since 2021; allow two to three hours by car or summer minibus. Snow often closes the road in winter, sometimes until April, so come from mid-June to September and stay at least a night. Shkodër's Rozafa Castle lies 46 km south-west as the crow flies.
About 25 m, under an hour's walk.
A deep pool on the Black River.
A refuge in times of blood feud.
Theth village, upper Shala valley, Shkodër municipality
A pool on the Black River at Kaprre, above Ndërlysaj, where the water pours through a narrow gap in the rock as a small cascade into a basin of about 100 square metres, up to 5 metres deep. Locals call it the Black Well; its colour shifts between blue and emerald with the seasons, and the snow-fed water stays very cold even in summer.
It takes a full day: about 17 km one way over the Valbona Pass (roughly 1,800 m), with some 1,000 m of climbing, and most walkers need six to eight hours on the marked trail, which passes a few cafés. Walk it from mid-June to early October, since snow can linger on the pass before then, and set out early with water, rain gear and sturdy boots.