From Dobogókő to Búbánat Valley: ridge trail on the western edge of the Visegrád Mountains

Itinerary:

• We follow the P marker northwest from Dobogókő to Szakó Pass.
• Along the Z+ marker we reach Égett-Hárs at the border of Pilisszentlászló.
• From Égett-Hárs we follow the Z marker to the Maróti Mountains.
• We descend along the P+ marker to Basaharc Valley Head.
• Finally, along the P▲ marker, we cross Hosszú Hill and Sas Hill to Búbánat Valley, making a short detour to the Hideglelős Cross on the way.
• Arriving at Búbánat Valley, we cover the last few hundred meters on an unmarked section, along Fárikúti and Őrtorony Streets and the P+ marker to the bus stop.

Detailed about the tour:

From the summit to the most beautiful panorama

Starting from the Dobogókő summit bus turnaround, we follow the P marker towards the nearby summit, the Baron Eötvös Loránd Shelter. At the tour starting point, we can replenish supplies one last time and enjoy the comfort of the shelter's buffet and restaurant because from here on we will avoid settlements and proceed through natural surroundings. The lookout behind the shelter offers a view from the highest peak of the mountain range, although this spot tends to be much busier than the nearby Rezső Lookout, which we pass within the first kilometer of our route.

The P marker follows a balancing walkway along the ridge on the sharply steep northern edge, a comfortable path to warm up our legs. In an environment decorated with elements of ancient Hungarian belief, shortly after the houses become sparse, our path turns right following the bend of the precipice. We take a detour to the top of a rock tower for the emerging view. Here, at about 700 meters altitude, stands the Rezső Lookout terrace, offering the most beautiful panorama of Dobogókő.

From the cliff overlooking the forest, we can see a significant part of the Visegrád Mountains. The Vadálló Rocks best show themselves here: like teeth protruding from the jaw of the ridge, rocks seem to bite into the forests below. The western part of the Danube Bend with the houses of Dömös, the Visegrád Castle, and the mass of Szent Mihály Hill, striated with rock faces, can be most clearly seen here from the vicinity of Dobogókő.

From cliff to saddle

We descend on the gentler side of the ridge through young shoot forests along a path scattered with andesite boulders. Among the old trees, we have a view into the northern edge’s steep slope, unfolding into a wild, vividly shaped mountainous area. The ridge ends in a steep drop at Tost Rock, where above and below the rock is a bench, an idyllic resting place with views stretching through the sparse forest. The path cleverly bypasses the rocky cliff, stepping down the steep side on roots of old beeches and wooden stair steps. At the base of the rock outcrop, the view truly opens through a window in the canopy; we see far into the forested mountains westward along our continuing route.

Arriving at Szakó Pass in the hall of old beeches, the mountain range’s strategic crossing connects the deep valleys above the Danube Bend to the west’s gentler lands. We descend westward along the Z+ marker, which guides us all the way to the border of Pilisszentkereszt through shady forest areas. With some descent, we reach a forestry dozer road, which slopes comfortably to Hoffmann Road. The fissure water springs from a carve lined with solid limestone, providing a reliable water source even in drought. According to a plaque on the wall, the spring shelter has stood here since the mid-19th century and was renovated by forestry in the 1950s.

In the old growth forest

We continue through an active forestry area, where forestry management visibly affects the roads, passing patches of harvested forest on the way. This area is part of the Pilis Park Forest’s old growth forest initiative, where only strip cutting is used, creating small openings in the forest, thus maintaining continuous forest cover. The forest environment, cool and moisture-retaining, helps the growth of new shoots. It models primeval forest conditions and natural regeneration, where old, decaying wood and natural renewal always coexist. Old, fallen, or storm-damaged decaying trees are left for the forest, nutrients are reclaimed by nature, and insects and cavity-dwelling animals benefit from the dead wood.

Below the spring, we reach a dozer road at Hoffmann Hut, which despite its name now stands as a solid hunting lodge. Originally, there was only a shingled log cabin housing forest workers, used by nature walkers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For decades, the Budapest section of the Hungarian Tourist Association managed it, but it fell into ruin during the two World Wars. It was rebuilt in the 1950s with stone. Next to it, a forester's house was built, which, on the designs of Imre Makovecz, was renovated in the ’80s. Today it operates as accommodation, event center, and hunting lodge.

In the attraction of Pilisszentlélek

Crossing the dozer road we level off along the side valley of Pilismarót-Malom Creek, following Hoffmann Road to Pilisszentlélek. At the saddle we reach the boundary of Pilisszentlélek, where we come closest to the ruins of the local Pauline monastery. With a one-kilometer detour, we can see the remains dating from the end of the Árpád era, which, like other monasteries in the Pilis, were depopulated by Turkish raids and completely destroyed after Buda fell.

From the saddle called Égett-Hárs, we continue again along the ridge following the Z marker through groves preserved from the meadows of Pilisszentlélek. Originally, a glass factory operated in the forested mountains from the early 1700s, settled by Slovak colonists. Logging and grazing were their means of livelihood, which transformed the source region of Szentlélek Creek. From the clearings, we look south, revealing a valley basin dotted with houses and the adjacent heavily forested limestone block of Pilis. With a short but steep climb, our only major ascent during the tour, we reach Felső-Ecset Hill, from where we wind along the western ridge of the Visegrád Mountains dotted with viewpoints.

From summit to summit

We pass by the tomb of the Unknown Soldier between Ecset and Ráró Hills. Heavy fighting took place here in the Danube Zug during World War II, with the front stalled for months until Allied forces encircled and forced the German and Hungarian armies to retreat from Esztergom.

The northern side of the ridge has an old clear-cut that opens the view to the northwestern part of the range. Shortly after crossing the summit, the southern forest thins, revealing rocky viewpoints and the outcrop of White Rock that can be reached with a short detour from the trail. From the light-spotted but brown dacite rocks, we get a stunning view of Pilisszentlélek and the valley of Szentlélek Creek; the houses lie almost at our feet in the shadow of the monumental Pilis block.

The trail from here turns north and crosses mainly oak forests without great sights. We pass the memorial site called Enyedi’s Death, commemorating a forester who was killed on the spot. According to the story, the tragedy was caused by jealousy in love, though, as customarily, the folk lightly judges.

At a point in the monotonous forest walk, the Z marker branches off from the ridge, where we continue on the P+ marker crossing the Maróti Mountains. At a point in the ridge, the forest thins westward, opening a rocky viewpoint with a panorama of Vaskapu and the hills above Esztergom. Below us, the patchwork basin with farms of the valley of Csenke Creek is already part of Esztergom’s resort area.

From the Maróti Mountains, we arrive with a brisk descent at the Savó-kúti clearing, where the P marker joins briefly, but we follow the P▲ marker from the junction, which continues on the previously followed P+ marker to Basaharc Valley. With the last momentum, we climb the blocks of Hosszú and Sas Hills, where the surface steeply drops toward the Danube. Crossing the shrub-covered top of Sas Hill, the forest thins at the largest landslide on the western slope, offering a breathtaking view of the Danube. The astonishing sight is the silver ribbon of the stream wedged among the steep hills, unrealistically contrasting with the vast water mass against the forested mountains.

In the attraction of the Danube

At the bottom of the slope, we arrive at a small basin where it is worth looking at the outcrop rising on the right to get an even closer view of the Danube. On the mining-mutilated summit of the hill, we find the Hideglelős Cross, which the P Chapel marker leads up to. The original cross was erected at the end of the 18th century by a farmer from Esztergom in gratitude for his family surviving a plague, but the decaying wood was replaced about a century later by a metal cross from the archbishop of Esztergom. Every year a procession climbed to the cross, which had to be moved down from the diminishing peak due to mining activities.

We only have to climb a few tens of meters, but the slope is steep and the mountainside rocky. Nevertheless, it is worth going up for one last magnificent view offered by the rocky pinnacle. Indeed, at our feet flows the wide river, cut with islands, beyond which a similarly forested mountainous landscape stretches. Opposite is the rocky drop of the Helembai Mountains, while further back to the northeast, the volcanic cones of Börzsöny add dynamism to the view. Between the two ranges lies a lowland filled with deposits of the Ipoly River, as it meets the Danube here. The Ipoly marks the border between Slovakia and Hungary, so before us the Danube is still a border zone, and the opposite shore is Slovakia.

Returning to the steep slope, we make our last descent in a boulder-strewn valley along the P▲ marker to the Esztergom road, the entrance to the Búbánat Valley. It is advisable to stay away from the busy highway – so we turn left into Őrtorony Street at the valley’s first opportunity, which leads to the end of our hike. The street name preserves an ancient relic, as a Roman watchtower once stood here, whose remains were found on the creek bank. The Danube’s line has been a border zone for two thousand years, marking the northern edges of the Roman Empire with limes, along which military installations were lined up.