Beautiful view: Natural murderer's path in the wall of Pes-kő

Itinerary:

• We start from the Újtelep bus stop heading out of the village
• As soon as we reach the National Blue Trail K mark, we turn into the forest, but after 100 meters we do not turn left with it, rather we continue straight along the forest road
• This forest road leads all the way to the trail leading to the rock face
• Following the trail, we reach the rock passage and the cave
• We return on this trail to the road, but we do not continue where we came from, instead turning left towards a clearing
• On the forest road, keeping left at the forks, we descend from the mountain
• We reach the National Blue Trail K mark again, and follow it southwards until the Tarjáni mill creek
• Here, turning right, we cross over to a yellow circle marked hiking trail on a forest road, on which we head right, northwards
• After a small pond formed by damming a creek, we cross over to the other side and continue along the dirt road on the forest edge until the lookout
• The path visible from the lookout leads back into the village

Detailed description of the hike:

From the main road of Vértestolna, we take a fairly well-maintained forestry road towards the depth of the oak forest on the gently rising western side of Pes-kő, through a forest area called Kalmár-dűlő. We quickly leave behind the characteristic village noises (even in winter, a brush cutter is buzzing somewhere in a yard, somewhere a tractor is puffing) and the occasional passing cars on the main road. If it has rained recently, the squelch of the mud at the forest road entrance soon becomes only a memory in the forest smelling of wet leaves.

Reaching the flat plateau, the road changes into a trail, and already through the trees the blue sky indicating a vast space starts to shine. Large rocks covered with vivid green moss also become more frequent on the ground, signaling the approach to the rock face. The trail winds out onto the 80-100 meter high rock ledge, and the space opens up. Below us is forest, and in the distance ripple the hills of the Eastern Gerecse towards the southeast.

There is no time to enjoy the panorama because to the right, the trail merges into an excitingly narrow path (40-50 centimeters wide) continuing along the rock ledge. It is usually said that people who are affected by heights should spare themselves (and their companions) at this point, but fortunately the situation is not that bad. Turning to the wall, even those who get dizzy can carefully feel their way across the rock passage without having to close their eyes.

On the way to the cave, the rock passage narrows at one point, then narrows vertically so that you can only pass by stooping, like a half-open corridor.

Behind the three-sided triangular cave opening, the entrance to the Pes-kő cave is 4 meters high and 2 meters wide. The passage narrows and lowers inward, ending at a depth of 8 meters with a sediment-filled chimney. In good weather, it seems an ideal place to spend the night, although the ground is covered over a large area with berries of some mountain goat species, giving off a cozy, homely smell.

The mountain got its name from the cave; it is probably no news to many that the Slavic word "pest" means cave. Along with the mountain’s rock, the word eroded over the past centuries and the letter 't' wore off. This makes it easier to pronounce: Pes-kő.

Along various forest trails and roads, you can quickly descend from the mountain to the National Blue Trail running at the bottom of the rock face. We follow the K mark of the country's number one hiking path for a short time, then crossing the Tarjáni mill creek we switch at Tuskó meadow to the S● marked hiking trail passing by the western side of Pes-kő.

We don’t stay long on that either, only until a small pond formed by damming a creek. From the cold pond, Vértestolna is only 4 km away on the marked hiking trail. However, we want to also visit the Vértestolna lookout, which cannot be reached from here except by unmarked paths across creek beds and fences.

The lookout suddenly appears quite unexpectedly from the ground. The decent, roughly twenty-something-meter wooden structure built a few years ago has been overgrown from behind by the forest, but that does not matter because a mountain also towers behind it. From its top, there is no much better view of the desolate valley, the Szénás-hegy rising on the other side, and the nearby village than from its base. From the lookout, it is just a short walk back to the village and our starting point.