Travel Planner: Bicazului Gorges and the Red Lake

If you want to see a bit of the wild Romania and discover the beauty of the Carpathian mountains, we could recommend a hand full of places to go. This week we'll take you to Moldova, in the Ceahlau and Hasmas mountain massifs. It is a trip you should make by car to fully enjoy it– rent one for a couple of days, if needed. By Corina Saceanu Cheile Bicazului (Bicazului Gorges) is one of the most spectacular sights you will see in Romania. The canyon dug by the Bicaz river, which has eaten through rock to make it way down has created an area of serpentines closely surrounded by the tall, rocky walls of the mountain. You can drive through the gorges – the road is narrow, but two cars can drive one past each other easily. But despite the fact it is one of the most spectacular drives, most people prefer to park and walk – the scenery is amazing. The recent heavy rains have increased the level of the water – Bicaz, which has eroded the base of the street, so on some portions the road is narrow, as it has not been fixed yet.

With the walls caving down on you, bits and pieces of vegetation which grew in odd places and trees up on the rocky peaks, small waterfalls coming from cracks in the rock – this place will give you the peace and quiet you might have been longing for. Although it might not be entirely true about the quiet – it is full of tourists, we've seen a lot of foreigners there, mostly Hungarian. But still, it gives the sentiment of a cathedral. If you're into buying gifts and souvenirs rather than just taking pictures, sellers through about it and there are traditional items on sale in the area – clothing, wooden objects, alongside Chinese-made toys and other small gadgets for tourists. The Sunken Forest – Lacul Rosu/The Red Lake

The Bicazului Gorges are part of a natural park called National Park Bicazului Gorges – Hamas, which lays over 6,500 hectares, and which includes the other place we recommend – the Red Lake (Lacul Rosu). The Red lake is yet another amazing creation of nature. This one is more recent than Bicazului Gorges. The Red lake is first natural dam lake created in Romania. In 1837, one of the massifs in the area collapses and locked the Bicazului Valley close to the Bicazului Gorges, which created the lake.