The Essence of Vajdavár Area

Itinerary:

• From Dobronyatanya, follow the K+ trail branching right from the K mark, climbing up the forestry concrete road.
• The trail cuts across the bends of the concrete road, reaching the summit, from where it leaves the forestry road and descends into the Palina Valley.
• At the valley, turn left onto the S trail. Pass by the Roman military graves, and soon reach the former Palina forestry lodge, where you turn left onto the P trail.
• The P trail climbs through the beautiful Csanálos, then later the Cinókás Valley, reaching the ridge where the wide forest road turns left.
• Soon the P◼ trail appears, where you turn right and descend steeply on a barely visible but well-marked path through the trees to the valley floor. Here turn left, then the side valley soon joins the Leleszi Valley and the K (Ironworkers' road) and Z trails.
• Make a detour right to Vállóspuszta in the Vállós Valley and the Csurgó-well on the K and Z trails.
• Returning to the Leleszi Valley, turn right toward Tarnalelesz.
• Soon, together with the K trail, make a sharp left turn and start the ascent toward the main peak of the Vajdavár area.
• First on a path, then on wider and narrower forest dirt roads, reach the K trail at the Ökör Hill. An old, rusty sign shows the short detour to the summit, where the tourist marking does not go.
• Return to the K trail and descend into the Gyepes Valley.
• Passing the Remete hunting lodge and then the Keserű Valley guesthouse, return on the marked path along the valley floor road to Dobronyatanya.

Detailed description of the route:

Finding on the map

The central part of the Vajdavár area does not reveal itself easily, but we are not in just any place! Walking from Járdánháza to Dobronyatanya on the K trail, it is worth getting to know the secrets of this wonderful forest wilderness. We are walking in one of the largest contiguous forest areas in our country: the Tarnavidéki Landscape Protection Area, watching over natural values of which 89% is forest, and this fact alone is a call to boots. Dobronyatanya is an iconic place, as this secluded area is best known by those hiking the Ironworkers' route passing through the forest since 1968. The legends of the area definitely include that in the past, at Dobronyatanya at the beginning of the Keserű Valley, the hikers’ data was recorded so that in case they got lost in the vast forest, a search could be launched. But we need not worry at all: today, it is no easy task to get lost on this unknown land, at least in the central part affected by our hike, as the hiking trails are very well marked. Still, as we will see, this landscape has incredibly varied relief – no wonder some got lost here before.

It is also worth noting that the area mostly marked on maps as the Heves–Borsod Hills strangely still lacks a uniformly accepted name in geographical literature. Most frequently, we encounter the expressions Vajdavár area, Óbükki, Vajdavár Hills, Ózd Hills, or Ózd–Pétervására Hills. While the latter perhaps best describes the geographic location between Hódos, Hangony, and Leleszi streams and the Tarna, Vajdavár area or Vajdavár Hills distinctly separate this truly independent landscape from its surroundings. The official name Vajdavár area is perhaps fortunate from the perspective that it doesn’t imply the other contested question of whether it is a hill or a mid-mountain. Because this 'hill' has dozens of peaks exceeding 500 meters above sea level, including the main peak, Ökör Hill, at 541 meters, from which the endless forested view would not make anyone think they are not in a mid-mountain area. The official geographic term for the area, a 'mountain basin hill,' while indicated that way, the slope conditions and altitude of the central area are clearly mountainous, according to scientific criteria. The often 'misunderstood' landscape—with its streams deeply dissecting it—perhaps originates from the fact that when viewed from the surrounding mountain range (Mátra, Bükk), the basin character truly prevails, and the unmistakably mountainous but very isolated central part is gently surrounded by rolling hills from several sides. But now, onwards to the forest!

In the "undeveloped" forest wilderness

Walking in the Gyepes Valley at Dobronyatanya, one may easily notice a characteristic feature of the Vajdavár area: along the wide valley bottoms beside whimsically winding streams, extensive riparian forest dominated by resinous alder and tall ash. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most unique charms of the Vajdavár region, especially as just a few steps further beech forests appear on the steep hillsides. At Dobronyatanya, however, we leave the mountainous fen and follow the K+ mark, as well as a paved forestry road for a while, climbing over to the Palina Valley.

On this short section, it becomes clear that while this area is less known to hikers, it is by no means unknown to forestry – not only the forestry asphalt roads built in the 1960s remind us, but also the signs of logging and clearcutting. On the road to the Palina Valley, another characteristic of the landscape appears: the sandstone bedrock, which the local Palóc people generally call apoka. It is worth knowing that the relatively soft and easily erodible sandstones cause the terrain to be so jagged, and the relatively sharp ridges and steep slopes are remarkably well followed by the vegetation, as we will observe during the hike. For instance, on the Zár meadow next to the Palina Valley, we walk on sandy soil amid the planted acacia forests that are otherwise not typical of the central area – one might feel like on the Great Plain if not looking up at the steep hillsides. In the Palina Valley, turning left on the S trail, we pass the Romanian military graves, then soon reach the Palina forestry lodge, which has seen better days. Here too, we turn left and start climbing on the P trail. In the Csanálos Valley again, a cool microclimate dominates along the seepage wet valleys, with alder trees in the wide stream bed and mainly beech in the hillsides. This is also the Partizán trail P marking from Hangonyi Lake to Borsodnádasd, painted in the 1960s. Its decade-old, sheet metal-made markings, still visible today in places, are considered a special curiosity.

On the ridge, we turn left onto the wide forestry road, but soon turn right onto the P◼ trail, and descend on a barely visible but well-marked path through the trees to the end of one of the longest and largest valleys of the Vajdavár area, the Leleszi Valley. From here, we quickly reach the K and Z trails, on which we turn right to make a detour to Vállóspuszta. Here, it is worth not only visiting the refreshing water of the Csurgó-well but also admiring the historic forestry lodge protected as a monument, with wooden columns and a hipped gable roof. It’s a pity that, like many forestry houses in the area, this too is inaccessible to hikers, but at least we can be glad it is in good condition! There must have been a lively atmosphere around this central house in the past, as the Palóc dialect names the animals’ watering place vallo, and the map shows many names related to livestock farming.

Taking the Ökör Hill

Returning to the Leleszi Valley, we head right, moving together with the stream toward Tarnalelesz. Here too, familiar alder trees greet us, then the vegetation changes completely as the hillside suddenly rises steeply. Then the K trail sharply turns left and starts the most spectacular section of our hike: taking the Ökör Hill along the Szarvas-kő ridge. Along this, the most striking feature of our hike, sudden landscape changes characteristic of Vajdavár appear in several places: on the southern side of the bare, sandstone ridge are thermophilic oak forests, while on the other side of the ridge is shady beech forest – here lies the Pataj Forest Reserve. Due to varied terrain caused by the bedrock, the area’s wildlife includes numerous plant and animal species of outstanding zoogeographic significance, either sub-Mediterranean or distinctly mountainous in character.

Along the ridge, one can see several small sandstone outcrops; thus, it is worth examining what exactly lies behind the locally commonly used term apoka. The Vajdavár area’s former sedimentary basin contains Miocene-aged sandstone classified into two basic types. One is a fine-grained, clayey sand deposited in shallow marine environments in places shielded from currents; the other, more distinctive formation, is coarse-grained glauconitic, “shoe-like” (with harder sandstone blocks) sandstone. Deposited in well-mixed shallow seawater, it is characterized mostly by a carbonate cement binding the grains. So much so that Vajdavár’s nationally unique fame rests on its sandstone cliffs. The most spectacular is Nagy-kő above Bükkszenterzsébet, with a nearly vertical wall reaching about 80 meters in height. Another known rock formation, Noé vineyard, can be found above Istenmező.

The detour to Ökör Hill is unmistakable, marked by an ancient sign deeply carved into a tree. From the main peak, only the Bükk direction and the Gyepes Valley running below open a beautiful panorama: ridge after ridge of mountains, forest after forest, as far as the eye can see. One neighboring massif is the namesake Vajdavár massif itself, where the map also marks forts. Another chapter in the unknown of the region: this is an archaeologically less explored area; the exact age of this and the Köbölvár above Tarnalelesz is unknown.

Mountain idyll

From the main peak, a steep, then gentler, and finally steep slope leads to the end of the Gyepes Valley opening from Járdánháza. Walking through the valley bids a worthy farewell to this special landscape because it is a key area both in terms of nature conservation and from the perspective of hikers within the Vajdavár region. Beautiful forests surround the Remete hunting lodge at the end of the Gyepes Valley and the Keserű Valley guesthouse, located a few steps below. Both have artificial tunnels in the mountain – the alternating layers of harder cemented and crumblier sandstone explain why the Vajdavár area hosts several dozen non-karst caves (though some appear more like overhanging rock ledges). The most peculiar is the partially collapsed Keserűtanyai tunnel about 36 meters long, opening next to the Keserű Valley guesthouse. The spring originating here provides water supply to the lodge; the tunnel walls are adorned with tiny stalactites due to the carbonate content of the sandstone, and it is home to strictly protected bats.

Along the stream, one can even spot a dipper, while below the guesthouse, again in mountain fen marked by alder trees, one can marvel, while the mostly beech trees mainly form the forest on the steep slopes all around. It is no wonder that these beautiful forests host not only the black stork, the honey buzzard, and the peregrine falcon but also one of Hungary’s remaining but now very few imperial eagle populations. Moreover, it is not hard to imagine the assertion of nature conservation experts that wolves and lynxes have permanently settled here, and brown bears are frequent visitors.

Before 1945, the Gyepes Valley, now of outstanding significance for nature conservation, was owned by Rimamurány–Salgótarjáni Vasmű Rt., and in the early last century, significant logging took place here as charcoal was needed for iron production. A narrow-gauge railway once operated in the valley, penetrating the untouched forest all the way up to today’s Remete hunting lodge. Fortunately, nowadays, little disturbs the forest's silence, and crowds of tourists avoid this wonderful wilderness. We return to Dobronyatanya on the road running at the bottom of the Gyepes Valley, following the K trail.