Nice views: Uppony Gorge: almost everything at every level

Itinerary:

• Follow the K trail from the football field to the edge of the village.
• At the junction switch to the K◼ trail, continuing to Szilas Hill.
• From there follow the K trail again.
• The detour to the Damasa Gorge can be made round-trip on the K+ trail.
• Continue on the K trail to the K▲ junction, then a round-trip detour to Kalica Hill.
• Continue on the K▲ trail (KL trail leads to the ruins of Dedevar).
• Join back to the K trail, which leads back to Uppony, our starting point.

Tour description:

From the settlement, cross a small bridge following the National Blue Trail line, then at the village border turn onto the hiking trail marked K◼ to climb up to the Szilas Hill saddle. The agricultural road is not a problem in dry weather, but if you travel it in the rain, beware of the famous Uppony clay slide, which we once captured in a bucket-list video.

Above the saddle, turning east, starts a ridge about 400 meters in average elevation, with the trail along its top. The ridge is one of the most beautiful parts of the Uppony Mountains, approximately three kilometers away are the two rock peaks of Három-kő-bérc, from which there is a stunning view of Uppony and the basin named Csicsandal. It's no wonder the Blue Trail route bends here, coming from Putnok to Szilas Hill saddle.

Before the two viewpoints, a left fork leaves the blue marked trail leading to the Damasa Gorge on the K+ trail. This optional, escapable 3.5-kilometer detour with not much elevation gain is recommended for those who are not tired by the 11-kilometer loop and are interested in one of Hungary's longest non-karst cave systems, which means almost everyone.

What is a non-karst cave and how did it form? The ancient rocks of the Uppony Mountains are covered in the east by Middle Miocene (Badenian) marine sediments with an overlying Sarmatian andesite agglomerate. The rock structural cracks of house-sized agglomerate blocks slid along the sandy-clayey Badenian layers, resulting in a zigzag hollow system closed on top and open below. This formed the Damasa Gorge agglomerate blocks’ non-karst cave system about 300 years ago, one of the largest in the country. (Geographical Publications, 1991.)

After the detour, a fifteen-minute walk leads to the already mentioned Három-kő-bérc. The peak itself is 461 meters high, and just before it, two smaller paths give access to the two rock spires. This is one of the most uniquely atmospheric viewpoints in the country, with the Uppony Gorge in the foreground and the Bükk Highlands in the background.

The trail continues on the Blue Trail from the humpbacks. You can descend all the way down to Uppony on the blue trail, but then you'd miss two other highlights of the tour: the natural viewing terrace of Kalica Hill and the Uppony Gorge itself. For this, at the Kalica Hill saddle, you must turn left from the blue trail onto the K▲ trail.

After the 402-meter-high Kalica Hill, in a few minutes you reach a huge viewpoint marked with a wooden cross, from which the artificial lake of the Lázbérc Reservoir, squeezed between the mountains, is clearly visible.

Herkó Priest’s Cross: according to folk tradition, the cross marks a boundary line where Catholic and Reformed communities met, "here Herkó Priest stopped the Calvinists."

From the summit, a steep path navigable with hands and feet leads down to the bottom of the gorge, but it is more reasonable to turn back and descend towards the gorge on the K▲ trail with a short detour. Along the way is also the ruin of Dedevar, which in the Árpád era was probably a watchtower at a key spot of the gorge, from where enemies sneaking up could be spotted well from both directions. Today, only a waist-high wall remnant marks the site, surrounded by trees.

Upon reaching the narrow, shady gorge, the air noticeably cools and moistens. The last couple hundred meters in the bottom of the gorge can be traversed on an asphalt road to the barrier at the entrance, which is irregularly opened or lowered for vehicles heading to the strictly protected Lázbérc area.

In the middle of the southern wall of the gorge, the Sima-kő Cave can be reached by an impossibly steep path. The difficult access is a blessing, as the cave is specially protected. At the top of the cliff, almost directly above the cave, a new optional supplementary route leads, which can be completed by a 4-kilometer hike from the start/end point of the tour.

This section is just the icing on the cake: for those who found the previous 15 kilometers of hiking insufficient, here you can add kilometers that will feel good for evening sleep. But it’s also good to know that to enjoy the view unveiled at Eszkála Hill, a struggle awaits: a relatively short section involves overcoming 200 meters of elevation gain. From the summit, you can see the wide Y-shaped Lázbérc Reservoir in its entirety, along whose shore the next day a perfect, easy cooldown walk can be done to Dédestapolcsány and back.

Lázbérc Reservoir: created in 1967–68 by damming the Bán brook valley to secure water supply for the Sajó Valley industrial area and to supply drinking water to surrounding settlements. The Y-shaped artificial lake is part of the Lázbérc Landscape Protection Area established in 1975, the first såd protected landscape area in Northern Hungary. Swimming is prohibited in the lake, but it is a paradise for anglers.