Hidden places: Grohotiș Mountains

Hidden places: Grohotiș Mountains

When it comes to writing about the hidden places, I always have second thoughts about it and question myself: should I share this location or experience with others or should I keep it for myself, so only a few people will know about it? The reason why I think like so, especially regarding the natural places such as the mountains, is because I am afraid that the spot could possibly became popular in an unhealthy way due to the lack of respect and education that people can have towards nature. In an unconscious manner, humans often start to destroy the beauty and uniqueness of a place.

I have seen this kind of phenomenon happening many times in Romania and I really don’t want such things to be occured anymore. It is true, when a place becomes “touristy famous”, the integrity of that zone is also in danger because not all of the people have the right education and common sense in relation to travelling. For giving a bit o contribution to the situation, I plan an upcoming article about rules a traveler should take in consideration while transiting various places with a good, responsible and friendly approach over the world.

In the past few years, I have been travelling outside my home country to same of the most known cities in Europe such as Rome, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Luxemburg – of which you can find articles in my profile – and inside Romania I have visited Bucharest, Brașov, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, Alba Iulia and so on. Even if, all of these places were amazing, lately, I had set a goal and also a rule for myself consisting in traveling to unknown places which are not very famous and touristy.

A tourist or a traveler?

You may wonder: why she wanna do this? Well, is because I want to build my own perspective about everything that surrounds me. For example, somehow, when you are visiting a touristic place, you are guided into what’s to see, what’s to be experienced. Everything is shown in front of you and is like you are not let to discover more, to engage deeper with things and to wonder what’s going on and why. The process is quite different when you are travelling to what I call “hidden places”. The total unknown or the partial known lets you to explore, to became more than a tourist, to became a traveler and wonderer of this world.

Why Grohotiș?

Grohotiș mountains are fitting well in the category of hidden places. You know when a location is really mysterious: when you barely can find information about it on Google. Yes, this is exactly what happened when I was trying to search for same indications about Grohotiș Mountains. There were so few articles and blog posts about them and the only ones that I found were kind of old, from a couple of years ago. There was nothing recent and relevant.

The reason why I decided to write about these mountains was actually determined by this fact, by the lack of online information about Grohotiș. For now I have travelled to a very small area of the mountains, but my aim for the following year is to trek them all over and write travel journals about their places because Grohotiș Mountains have a huge potential and lots of beautiful belongings to offer to the people who are practicing mountain hiking.

Where are the mountains located?

Grohotiș Mountains are located in the south part of the Eastern Carpathians being surrounded in the west by Baiului Mountains and in the north west by Ciucaș Mountains. The Grohotuș Massif spreads across the Prahova County which is also the region where I live.

Driving on a forest slippery road 

In one day, a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue my father thought and very soon decided that he wants to go on Zănoaga Peak, one of the highest peaks of Grohotiș. It was a free day for me so I joined him on the journey. Other two friends of my father came with us too. There was three man and I. All of them had been many times to Grohotiș Mountains and in all of the other surrounding mountains in their younger years, thus I did not had to worry much about the routes to follow or about getting lost.

We started on the road in the morning from the village named Șotrile and we drove along Paltinu Dam, Doftana Valley until we reached an unpaved forest road that lead us to a remote but very beautiful area with just a few houses and called The Black Valley. In the car the men started storytelling about past adventures including the encounter with wild animals. We drove on the forest road until it good pretty bad and slippery with no possibility for the car to go forward, but the fact was not a problem because we were not there to sit in the car, but to hike the mountains.

The travel journey into the wilderness: encountering wild animals

We stopped the car and got our backpacks from the trunk and continued walking on the sloppy forest road surrounded by wild woods. Very soon, as we were trekking, an animal sound came from the forest. It was a heavy breath of a running animal that was coming towards us. We couldn’t see anything because of the dense forest, but the men said that by the sounds the animal was making, he was probably a deer. I had been wishing for so long to see a deer in the wilderness and even if this time I didn’t looked at him directly, I really felt and heard his heavy breathing. In that moment, I got a bit scared by I was also so fascinated and excited about the opportunity of meeting with wild animals in their natural environment. 

We stayed for a bit in that place where we heard the animal sound to see if he is going to appear, but unfortunately, he probably got scared of us an ran way. We continued on the forest road being guided by my father's friends. To make sure that we were on a good path, I was also checking our position from time to time on an app called Munții Noștri. ( I really recommend this mobile application to the people who are preparing for mountain trekking in the romanian mountains ). 

An old weather station on the Zănoaga Peak

We left the forest behind after 30 minutes of climbing through it we reached the alpine pasture. From here, very beautiful landscapes started to open up in every directions. We followed the mountain ridge which was visible and got us to Zănoaga Peak. The wind was extremly strong and made it difficult for us to reach the top. We found a bit of shelter inside the old construction that was build directly on the mountain peak. I couldn't stayed inside a lot because all I wanted to do was taking lots of photos in all of the wonderful surroundings that I could see from the place I was in. Thus, even if the wind was blowing constantly it didn't stopped me from taking many pictures which you can admire through the article. 

As far as I understood, the grey construction shown in the image above was in the past a weather station which now doesn't have that role anymore, offering people only protection in case of strong winds, rain, snow storms or any other unfavorable and unpredictable weather conditions. Although I didn't expect it, the interior of the building was clean, lacking in discarded packaging and garbage. 

The mountain tops of the Grohotiș Mountains and beyond

The most known mountains that we could see from the Zănoaga peak were The Ciucaș Mountains, but only half of their entire territory was visible because a dense cloud was raising above it. The sun was coming and going so the light was changing constantly which challenged my photography job, but overall I was very satisfied and happy with the photos that I took that day and for sure with all of the mesmeraizing landscapes I was surrounded by. I wanted to continue trekking on that long and curvy mountain ridge, but there was not enough time and we had to go back. Thus, the path crossing all of the Grohotiș Mountains peaks got stuck in my mind as a path that I need to trekk on in the upcoming year. 

The wooden shelters of the shepards

Another aspect that I found quiet interesting and specific into the mountains was the presence of little wooden shelters like the one in the photo below which were probably constructed by shepards. In the late autumn and winter because the shepherds descend from the mountain with their sheeps those constructions became empty and could also offer shelter for the trekkers in need. 

Green details in an autumn forest 

When it got pretty late and after we had some snakcs and a rest break, we started to go down the mountain through the forest. There I stopped many times to take photos again of the so charming vegetation details consisting in weird fungi grown on trees, green moss and "feriga" which were appearing in contrast with the dry autumn leaves being due to that very photogenic. Going down was of course faster than climbing, so in a couple of minutes we got back to the car. For that day, the journey among the wilderness of The Grohotiș Mountains had come to an end. 

Photo gallery