The convoluted world of karst - wandering between Aggtelek and Jósvafő

Itinerary:

• From the bus stop we walk on the K◼ trail to the tourist hostel.
• From the Baradla Cave Aggtelek entrance we follow the Z+ trail in the Baradla valley to the Kecső valley confluence.
• In the Kecső valley we follow the Z trail to the Jósvafő entrance of Baradla Cave.
• The S trail navigates back touching the Jósva spring to the St. Francis Chapel.
• From the chapel to the right, on the K+ trail we ascend to Közép Hill, where we join the K trail.
• From the K trail at the next pass, we turn off on the K▲ trail to the Baradla summit.
• We join the K trail again, which we follow straight back to the Baradla Cave Aggtelek entrance.
• From the cave entrance on the K◼ trail we return to the bus stop and the parking lot.

Detailed description of the hike:

From Aggtelek to Jósvafő through the wooded strips of the Baradla and Kecső valleys

Starting from near Aggtelek towards the imposing cliff opening where the Baradla Cave entrance is, we begin our hike following the K◼ trail that crosses the park. We leave the tourist hostel building and switch to the Z+ trail climbing the stairway beside the cave ticket office. In the village, the cave tours have old traditions: in past centuries, the chambers filled with dripstone formations were illuminated by torches, and tourists could take home stalactites as souvenirs.

Traversing the rocky wall above the entrance to the Bat Branch, a concrete sidewalk leads over the mountain to the other side, the Baradla valley. The concrete road runs along the valley floor's edge to the rocky throat entrance of the Lace Hall, which is the endpoint for the short Aggtelek cave tour. In the past century, especially during socialism, armed border guards here signaled to the underground tourist influx that they were in border territory. Opposite on the ridge ran the Hungarian-Czechoslovak border section, which now has only administrative significance.

The tourist path runs along the broad, gently undulating valley edge – after the cave entrance, this is a stony cart road leading to the edge of the bushy forest. We proceed on a path winding around sinkholes, accompanied by clearings, groves, and dense hornbeam-oak forests. The valley bottom lacks surface water, replaced by larger kettle-shaped depressions that seep precipitation underground so that underground streams gather water in the bottoms of cracks and caves. At the start of Baradla valley, under the first large sinkhole runs the Styx, the cave stream uniting waters of the wider area.

After the sinkholes in the first section of Baradla valley, the terrain slowly descends as we approach the surface-flowing Kecső stream parallel to Styx. Before the valley mouth, we reach the Z trail, which we follow east towards Jósvafő. Here we come closest to the border; on the left branch, just a few hundred meters along, the nature trail enters Slovak territory - although the nearby Kecső settlement still hears mostly Hungarian spoken today.

We continue sideways along the shady hornbeam-oak forest above the stream. A few hundred meters later, at the confluence of the next tributary valley, the Karu valley, we descend on a small rocky ridge to the Kecső stream. In dry conditions, water barely flows here or disappears completely, as is typical in karst areas where water flows underground. The narrowing valley winds with a gorge-like, narrow valley floor on rocky, boulder-strewn terrain. This region, perhaps Hungary's most atmospheric valley, the middle section of Kecső, features a wild landscape with wet depressions, fallen trees, moss-covered rocks, and lush undergrowth, evoking times before humans. North of the valley lies a border region, the core area of a biosphere reserve that is home and refuge to many endangered species.

As the valley widens, the closed forest also breaks apart, so we walk among small forest clearings and groves. On the first clearing, the moss- and fern-covered building of the Aggtelek waterworks lies idyllically near the spring emerging from the mountain, at Babot well. Further down we mostly skirt clearings and gradually can see Jósvafő houses in the expanding valley when the trail crosses steeply to the far side of the stream. The path bypasses the village to explore the closed basin on the far side of the ridge.

Jósvafő water adventure park in the basin of karst plateau springs

The Z trail climbs a short but steep slope and after cresting the saddle, crosses the K trail, descending into the basin housing the ends of the Baradla cave stream and its source springs. A steep descent brings us to the entrance of the underground world alongside the headquarters of the Aggtelek National Park Directorate. Here is the renowned Tengerszem Hotel and the Kessler Hubert Memorial House, the former home and exhibition of the geographer, karst researcher, and caver.

Opposite the Baradla Cave entrance, we target a stairway on the S trail, which we follow from here to Aggtelek's boundary and the St. Francis Chapel. Descending in the shady forest of the basin, we reach exits of the Baradla Cave carved ever deeper over millennia. Currently, the cave stream emerges from a lower spring protected by a stylish iron gate preventing unauthorized access. The considerable volume of water is diverted through a branched network of channels, partly to a mill. Historically, a forge and hydropower plant briefly operated here. Presently much of the water builds the tufa dam below the spring – depositing limestone dissolved from the mountain on cave dripstones and steps in the stream bed. This process is visible at the spring as water deposits the tufa under falls, forming an obstacle in its own path. Near the cave water's clear surface outlet lies a lake in the park's lower region, whose milky turquoise color is due to tiny calcite crystals within. The dense beech forest surrounds Tengerszem except near the dam where the shore is open – here we follow the stream flow. The pleasant forest promenade winds through green clearings toward the village. The constantly replenished, oxygen-rich, clean water supports unusually lush aquatic vegetation. To the right, the water of the Komlós spring flows beneath us into the Jósva. Interestingly, it is the other large stream system bringing water from the Béke cave to the south, from Galyaság. Waters arriving from the north are partially supplied by the Tohonya emerging from the Kossuth cave, which together with the Kecső stream waters from beyond the border (under the village church) discharge into the combined streams of the surrounding plateaus, flowing into the Jósva. If we take the effort and walk into Jósvafő, under the highway bridge in front of the pub, we see this united stream.

Our original hike bypasses Jósvafő to climb back from the lowest point, the confluence of Jósva and Komlós streams, from the ruined miners' holiday building back up to the plateau and even to the summit region.

On the top of the Aggtelek karst

Fortunately, there are no large elevation differences here despite climbing from the deepest point, the Jósva valley, back to the highest peaks above Aggtelek. We mostly follow the S trail linking the most scenic spots: the Red Lake, Bear Rocks, and the St. Francis Chapel.

We step from the miner's gravel road to the highway, follow its curve for a few hundred meters, then turn right retracing upward on a bulldozer road to the Kő-horog (Stone Hook) slope. The path passes in front of the Béke cave artificial entrance – the natural corridor is impassable due to Komlós spring water. Cave therapy groups descend here since the sterile cave air has a healing effect on asthma and respiratory diseases.

On the Kő-horog slope, we steadily climb from the valley, circle the Raven sinkhole, cross the highway, and arrive in the plateau groves. The next kilometer-long section runs nearly level among sinkholes. Here alone, at the beginning of the route, we immediately descend into the first large depression for a reason: it contains a unique rock formation and plateau karst lake, unique in Hungary.

At the bottom of the Long Sinkhole we find a heavily overgrown water surface. When village animals grazed nearby, they regularly 'combed' the lake's vegetation and stirred the red clay mud, coloring the water. Nowadays natural vegetation mostly fills and slowly fills the lake basin. The lake formed from filling in the sinkhole: originally it collapsed due to conductive action of rainwater, widens, and neighbor slopes' red clay soil washed down, sealing cracks and thus creating the lake.

Below the eroded red clay, another interesting geological phenomenon appeared, the Bear Rocks complex. These shapes formed over tens of millions of years ago in tropical climates before clay formation. This cone karst was shaped by heavy tropical rainfall's strong dissolving effects. Such formations in Hungary were usually found buried during bauxite mining – but here they are visible in their natural state.

From the bottom of the Red Lake sinkhole, we emerge on the opposite side onto typical karst plateau terrain. We pass by the Baradla Cave entrance above Red Lake, then circumvent the juniper-covered Borókás sinkholes widely. Beyond the largest sinkhole, at St. Francis Chapel, we return to the Aggtelek highway side.

The intimate meadow-edge building offers the shortest return route to Aggtelek along the S trail, but we personally take a winding detour following the K+ and K▲ trails to climb the two characteristic heights, Közép Hill and Baradla summit. From the chapel, we briefly descend eastward, follow the asphalt road searching for the K+ signs. Soon a cart road starts to climb left into the densely forested slope. Climbing the southern side of Közép Hill, we walk on the summit's shrubby, groved karst meadow with limited views south to Galyaság hills. Interestingly, almost directly below the summit runs east-west deep inside the limestone block is Baradla Cave.

We descend on a gentle northwest ridge into the saddle between Közép and Magas hills, where we switch to the K trail (left). Through dense forest, we arrive in the upper basin of Karu valley, then traverse the northern side of Galya summit, reaching Baradla summit saddle. Here be attentive: on a barely visible path, the K▲ trail turns into the bushy forest and targets the Baradla summit.

We wind through the zigzag forest with strongly winding line, climbing an increasingly rocky hillside among shrubs. The summit karst meadow requires great care due to uneven limestone grooves that can cause ankle twists. Since the globby trees' groves are not spacious enough, there is no view from the summit; only lower down near Baradla summit's village-close border opens a long grassy patch with views around Aggtelek. With feet working on the rocky surface, we reach the final part of our hike to a viewpoint above Baradla Cave entrance, where a comfortable path with sidewalk leads to the start. Before descending, it is worth enjoying the wonderful panorama from the cliff: viewing the village pastures, fields, and surrounding forests. Directly below opens the cave where at its end near Jósvafő we saw the stream emerging, which collects water and rock through hidden mountain cracks, maintaining eternal reciprocal influence.

Turning left on the K trail, we return to the cave's Aggtelek entrance from where following K◼ signs we find the bus stop and parking lot.