Photo credit: Alex Pers 

Located in Neamț County, the Bicaz Gorges, with their wild aspect that makes you feel like you’re in a fantastic epic, are proof that there are still places where the grandeur of nature speaks for itself, continually surprising visitors with their beauty and picturesque charm. Here, climbers and photographers alike meet to conquer and capture in images the breathtaking rock formations rising over 300 meters, a gorge carved by the Bicaz River with its foamy waters rushing over the stones, and a road that winds through the limestone cliffs hiding impressive caves and shafts.

Photo credit: Alex Pers 

What can such a place be compared to? Many travelers leave with the impression that they have visited a gallery of natural art, presenting the raw, untamed beauty of the Eastern Carpathians. From the confluence of the Bicăjel stream with the Bicaz River begins the most spectacular part of the Gorges, stretching for about 1 km. There, towering rock walls, ancient witnesses to time, stand: “Gâtul Iadului” nestled between “Piatra Surducului” and the “Bardos Wall,” “Piatra Altarului” – 1154m, the highest rocky massif of the Bicaz Gorges, “Piatra Pinteștilor” – 847m, “Piatra Arșiței” – 835m, “Piatra Surducului.” Breathtaking, “Poarta de Piatră” and “Polițele Bardosului” are so close to each other that the sun barely penetrates the narrow road that cuts through this colossal creation.

Photo credit: Neamț County Council archive 

In this wonderful nature, with its stunning, wild, and unexplored beauty, 18 mountain tourist trails can be followed. As the road twists and the steep cliffs loom overhead, each bend of the gorge presents a more surprising view than the last, often shrouded in mist, blurring the lines between reality and myth.

Some of the rocks have marked trails for climbers, and “Santinela” is the sheer wall that completes the apocalyptic landscape, which the most daring climbers attempt to scale.

In the forests surrounding the Bicaz Gorges, live the Carpathian deer, roe deer, chamois, wild boar, brown bears, wolves, wildcats, lynxes, rabbits, mountain eagles, capercaillies, hazel grouses, buzzards, blackbirds, ravens, as well as vipers and smooth snakes. In the fast waters of the Bicaz and its tributaries, you can find mountain trout. Among the plant species, there are wild ginger, hazel, lady’s slipper, buttercups, bloody cranesbill, and yellow gentian, while in the crevices of the rocks, the edelweiss blooms.