Caldera hike in the Sanctuary of Börzsöny

Itinerary:

• From the Kemence Youth Camp, we ascend on the Z trail over Godóvár and Magosfa to Csóványos.
• Before reaching the summit of Csóványos, we turn off on the P● trail to the Felső-Rózsa spring, then continue back to rejoin the Z trail.
• From Csóványos, we descend via the K▲ trail down into the caldera collapse to the Magashídi meadow.
• On the K+ trail we go to the Hamuház, then on the K trail back to the Kemence Youth Camp along the Csarna stream valley.

Detailed description of the route:

Climbing on the caldera rim to the volcano summit

Starting from the meeting point of the Kemence and Csarna streams, we follow the Z trail to explore the Central Börzsöny caldera along the rim of the volcanic collapse. Crossing the bridge over the Kemence stream, we branch left off the asphalt road near the Börzsöny Benchmark concrete platform. This concrete foundation with a natural stone wall, erected in 1953, was the starting point for creating the highly accurate map of Börzsöny. At the highest point of our hike, the summit of Csóványos, the stretching lookout level was built around the geodetic measuring tower established as part of the cartographic base network. Practically, we pilgrimage from the Börzsöny main benchmark to the highest cartographic point while passing through the characteristic parts of the caldera.

We walk upwards through an oak forest along a gentle hillside, then after over a kilometer, from the junction of the Z◼ trail, we climb steeply up to the Godóvár massif. At the top of this natural fortress settled a Bronze Age Kyjatice culture community, who inhabited several summits of Börzsöny in the 2nd millennium BC. They established and surrounded multi-hectare settlements on the flat hilltops bordered by steep slopes with wooden stone ramparts. Traces were also found on several nearby summits along our route, such as Magosfa and Hajagos peaks. Why Bronze Age people moved deep into dense forests and such remote places remains unknown; they also found settlements of the same culture at the foot of the mountain. Perhaps a privileged class lived in these fortresses, supplied from the valley or serving as protective bases for valley residents to hide from potential dangers.

By detouring around the rocky Godóvár block, our path continues along the ridge, sometimes only a few meters from it, on a wild trail. The formerly western exposure changes, as indicated by the vegetation. From this point, hornbeam and beech forests become typical on the northern side, and oak-dominated associations on the southern slopes. Narrow-gauge railways built in the early 20th century snaked along the northern and central parts of the High Börzsöny to harvest these forests down to the innermost areas, leaving the slopes clear-cut. All surrounding forests have since regenerated since the mid-20th century. This resulted in monotonous ash forests along the ridge, which were the first to grow after the beech forests were cut and no replanting was done.

Near Miklós Peak, we navigate ridge sections with rocky crests – here the hiking trail has been diverted several times, and as its nickname (Eagle Trail) and two posted signs indicate, it is a nesting area for a particularly rare, strictly protected, and disturbance-sensitive bird of prey. From the ridge trail, we sometimes look north to the neighboring Selmec Mountains and the farther Madaras, then on a rocky spur, the caldera reveals itself. The rocky slope of Miklós Peak opens the most beautiful northern ridge panorama over the central Börzsöny area, a small high mountain wilderness escarped beneath Csóványos and Nagy-Hideg Hill. The narrow path soon joins a forest transport road, where we briefly rest on the gentle slope of the Dosnya saddle. Then we arrive at the steepest ascent of our route at the border of sunny oak and beech forests, on the hillside below Esztergályos. Here we gain two hundred meters of elevation in barely one kilometer – again on a trail.

From the Dosnya saddle, our path continues along the ridge, marking the boundary of the caldera’s inner, strictly protected area. In many places looking north, we gaze through the steep, clear-cut forest to the rising ridge, while dense, compact forests cover the inner southern areas, interrupted only by patches of rocky grasslands and clearings caused by ice damage and windfalls. Between December 1-2, 2014, icy rain several centimeters thick caused the biggest destruction in Börzsöny’s recorded history in the higher regions. The intensity of tree falls was increased because the forests in the areas clear-cut in the early and mid-20th century were mostly young, causing belt-like or larger patches of tree falls among trees of similar properties.

On the caldera top

After Esztergályos, along the Magosfa ridge, we hike through uniformly old forest with gentler ascents to the summit area also called the Tatra Lookout, enclosed by extensive Bronze Age stone ramparts. This 3.5-hectare earthwork is the highest such fortress in Hungary. When built, the climate was much wetter than today, resulting in more abundant springs near the summits, enabling settlement on the mountain tops.

After the Magosfa block, the P, P▲, and K▲ trails join our route before we cross a small saddle to reach the Csóványos block. Breaking the ascent, we turn off on the P● trail towards one of the highest springs in the country, the Upper Rose Spring, which gushes out from a stoned depression at 884 meters altitude. Volcanic mountains typically have precipitation gathering in fractured rock surface zones that, due to a local waterproof layer, flow to the surface at high relative altitude. Unfortunately, these high-altitude springs have erratic water flow due to the small catchment area.

After the short detour, we rejoin the Z trail, which soon reaches the summit of Csóványos. The flat top has resting places with benches and tables, inviting us to rest, but it’s worth the effort to climb the stairs to admire the surrounding undulating landscape from the lookout. Thanks to the characteristic structure of Börzsöny, one of the best 360-degree panoramas in the country can be enjoyed from Csóványos – no coincidence it was the highest established geodetic tower. The Ipoly valley surrounds Börzsöny from northeast to southwest, while the Visegrád Mountains merge with Börzsöny in the south, and Mátra rises from the Nógrád hills to dominate the eastern horizon. The nearby Tatra Lookout summit name suggests that on a clear day, with some luck, the snowy ridge of the Tatra can be seen sparkling on the northern horizon as the crown of the Upper Hungarian mountains. The top level of the lookout is 22.5 meters above ground level, so we actually look around from 961 meters altitude, exactly as high as Szilvás-kő, Hungary’s third-highest summit atop Bükk. Thus, after Kékestető and Galyatető in Mátra and the Petőfi Lookout of Bálvány in Bükk, Csóványos is the fourth highest lookout point in the country.

After soaking in the view, fresh mountain air, and resting from the summit climb, we start a long descent within the caldera collapse. Two routes are available; we follow the shorter and more practical K▲ trail, but a scenic alternative is the slightly longer route passing Korona Stone, Szabó Stones, and Oltár Stone as we go south. So, we descend on the partially familiar route used on ascent but now focusing on the K▲ trail, which after a narrow kilometer cuts left into the caldera collapse.

Descent inside the caldera

The K▲ trail skirts below the rocky edge of the caldera across a large windfall into the summit’s falling line. From the P▲ trail junction, the path descends along a very steep ridge branching off from Csóványos summit. We descend 150 meters of elevation in 500 meters; in the next few kilometers, we cover nearly half the total elevation loss of the hike. The extinguished volcano’s gradual collapse left behind a deeply furrowed, steeply shaped, crooked landscape with sharp forms.

This area provides an excellent habitat and refuge for the rarest, most endangered creatures. The lynx, absent for almost a century from Börzsöny forests, reappeared here near the turn of the 21st century. Known as the «spirit of the Carpathians,» this cat grows to 30 kilograms and meters in length, and experts identify it only by its tracks and prey. Spotting it requires exceptional luck. The nocturnal predator rests during the day in some rock cavity and silently vanishes well before we might approach. However, we can discover its rounded, clawless footprint in the mud or snow in the inner parts of the mountain range.

At the bottom of the ridge, we pass by the Kőkorsó rock and arrive at the narrow gorge densely forested along the Oltár stream. Unfortunately, ice damage severely affected the forest here; the beech forest lies for a long stretch, and we must zigzag through growing underbrush among fallen trees. We must move carefully on this steep obstacle course, as we are far from any external help!

At the valley’s lower section, the path skirts on a clearly visible embankment, leading out to the Magas Bridge meadow at the meeting point of the Oltár and Fekete streams. Timber-harvesting railways from the first half of the 20th century reached this far. The evenly sloped embankments we have descended on and the railway track arriving from the opposite slope and crossing the deep valley on a tall wooden bridge are results of efforts to harvest the most hidden forests. Cleverly laid tracks allowed only empty wagons to be pulled up, while loaded trains were simply rolled down the valleys controlled by brakes.

We follow this railway along the Fekete and Csarna streams from the Magas Bridge meadow on the K+ trail. The track appears only from the Halyagos Postman’s Lodge on, where it often floats in the air above the stream bed. Two flash floods in the 1990s destroyed the bridges and undermined the track; the rebellious nature of the stream reclaimed control over the valley. For ages, its destructive and constructive work shaped the steep valley cut and the flat valley floor – it has done nothing else in the last 13 million years: ran wherever it pleased. In the late 2010s, renovating the railway and boosting tourism in the inner areas up to Hajagos was proposed, but social and nature conservation opposition stopped the narrow-gauge railway’s return, and the national park took the inner areas from the former forest manager Ipoly Erdő Zrt.

Although no longer serving its original function, the Ash House at the meeting point of the Kuruc and Csarna streams recalls one typical use of forest timber, the burning of wood ash. Potassium carbonate produced from pure wood ash was one of Hungary's most important export products in the 18th century and was used in soap and glass manufacturing. Here, the branching railway switch system, due to its higher position above the stream, survived floods as an industrial heritage.

From Nagybörzsöny, with the joining of the German Road and Maria Pilgrimage Trail, we continue on the K trail from the Ash House. The forest squeezed between steep rocky slopes evokes the atmosphere of Gothic churches with beech canopies rising from the dark valley floor, arching and connecting like vaulted ceilings. But here, the forest’s living body forms the walls, pillars, and ceiling, and instead of psalms, the stream babbles endlessly.

This extremely atmospheric section is broken after a few kilometers by the Feketevölgy Hostel building. Up to here, the railway has been restored and transports tourists on weekends. From here, we walk on the asphalt road leading to the hostel – compensated by the birch groves along the stream’s floodplain, preserving arboreal Methuselah trees. After less than two kilometers, we comfortably return to our starting point at the Youth Camp standing by the Kemence stream.