The gentler side of the Padiş landscape

Itinerary

• From Padiş (Padiş) follow the yellow dot trail to Glavoj Meadow (Poiana Glăvoi).
• From Glavoj Meadow (Poiana Glăvoi) follow the red stripe trail to the Csodavár Guesthouse (Cabana Cetățile Ponorului).
• From the guesthouse we start back on the red stripe trail to the nearby intersection branching right.
• Take the right fork, a wide road, following the red triangle trail to make a detour to the Hamlet Cave (Peştera Căput). (No signs in the last meters on the dry bed.)
• From the Hamlet Cave (Peştera Căput) return on the red triangle trail to the forestry road.
• On the forestry road follow the red stripe trail right to the Csodavár turn-off.
• On the blue dot trail (right) we arrive at Ponor Meadow (Poiana Ponor), which we cross straight ahead, following the trail to a ford.
• At the ford, turn left and on the blue dot trail (crossing the bridge) make a detour to the Ponor Spring (Izbucul Ponor).
• Returning, do not cross the bridge, but continue straight a few meters until you hit the hiking trail crossing the ford.
• Turn left on the blue dot trail to return to Padiş (Padiş).

Detailed description of the hike

The cradle of tourism in Padiş and the coffin of surface waters

Our hike starts from Padiş (Padiş), on the main street surrounded by guesthouses, heading southwest on a gravel road marked with yellow dot that leads out among the houses. The ruined, dilapidated buildings stand out among the newer, more civilized accommodation buildings, but the settlement grew bigger by the end of the 2010s. Until 1956, only shepherds' huts and an unused, dilapidated military building stood here; the army allowed the latter to be used for tourism purposes and after renovation it became the first guesthouse on the plateau (the Padiş guesthouse), but it burned down within two years and was rebuilt only in 1963. After it burned down again, only a camping area remained, and finally a local mining company built a block of flats for its workers, where hikers could stay. Other than that, there is no permanent settlement on Padiş.

We initially follow a dirt road, admiring the treasures of Padiş’s holiday hut culture on the right and left, with only shepherd dogs barking from the right potentially distracting us. Passing by enclosures, we reach the end of the row of houses; pines appear and a cozy, streamside camping area opens on the right. Streams flowing down from the Magura ridge behind the Padiş settlement merge here and disappear on the right side of the hiking trail, deep in a ditch - more precisely directed into the karst underground, where after a long route they emerge again in the Ponor spring, then less than one kilometer lower they sink again in the Ponor Meadow, finding their way to the Körös rivers between the walls of Csodavár and Galbina-kőkőz.

After a short forest section, we reach a wide pasture with a shepherd’s hut, where the trail winds around deep dolines. Be cautious at dusk and watch out for dogs guarding resting flocks; the shepherd is probably in the hut and it takes time for him to realize our presence and call back the dogs. At the “pine screen” meadow dotted with rocky outcrops, the trail branches; continue to the right on the yellow dot trail.

From the meadow with devil’s furrows our path leads into a cozy pine forest. We proceed southwest on a wide and easily walkable footpath, accompanied by mossy stones and ferns. The forest idyll is enhanced by unusually shaped limestone nodules worn by natural forces, while the pine forest gradually turns into mixed forest almost unnoticed. We cross a gentle sloping small meadow with a view of the surrounding rolling mountain ridges.

Another forest section follows and we approach the Glavoj Meadow tourist oasis with a steeper descent. On this few hundred meters section, the previously comfortable trail becomes a wild path; the stony, rocky terrain offers no great difficulty to experienced hikers but requires attention to each step.

Rest in the pine forest

We arrive at one of the central areas of the Padiş plateau, the Glavoj Meadow (Poiana Glăvoi), from where many attractions are accessible with a short walk. Accordingly, services are increasingly developing on the meadow; guesthouses and buffets operate here, and in summer the area fills with campers.

Along a stream winding through the green meadow we follow a wide gravel forestry road marked with red stripe. The path meanders approximately level through dense pines and provides quick access to the cliff fortress of Csodavár (Cetățile Ponorului) and the picturesque Ponor Meadow (Poiana Ponor), but this time let’s avoid tiring detours and walk straight to the forest building of the Csodavár guesthouse (Cabana Cetățile Ponorului), which originally accommodated professionals working on the plateau: foresters, mining engineers, researchers, and cave explorers, later renovated into a 20-room tourist house. The atmospheric house is a true oasis in Padiş thanks to its continuously operating restaurant. The building is accessible by car and ideally located; most of the plateau sights are easily reachable from here.

From the guesthouse, we briefly walk back on the forestry road to the branch-off of the red triangle hiking sign, where we turn right. Shortly after two bends on the wide macadam road we turn left at a ruined building, and walk only a few meters following the Bear Creek (Valea Ursului) to reach an impressive karst feature, the Hamlet Cave (Peştera Căput).

The hungry Hamlet Cave

To reach the cave entrance, we wade through a wide streambed, but in wetter periods water pours through the oval opening in the huge limestone mass. Sometimes it trickles, at other times it roars, as indicated by the smooth creek bottom worn by the water rushing through, periodically flooding the cave—an echoing reservoir of sound. The creek falls into the cave with a high waterfall, visible from above and the side if water levels permit. Do not go further inside—the 1873m long cave chambers and shafts are dangerous, and sudden floods can easily trap visitors.

After a short detour admiring the rock gateway, we return on the red triangle to the forestry road marked with red stripe leading to the guesthouse, turning right and walking to the Csodavár turn-off on a previously traveled section. At the trail junction, where benches and information boards stand, turn right on the blue dot (and yellow dot) trails.

The most beautiful drainage of Transylvania

The trail plunges into a fairy-tale mossy pine forest, stepping over roots until reaching the edge of the Ponor meadow’s basin-like depression. From here, we quickly descend to the edge of Ponor Meadow (Poiana Ponor) where, looking to the right, we see the disappearing creek. Its winding, vanishing bed ends in a small rocky “bay”, where although covered by sediment, two sinkholes channel the water underground. Its flow is capricious: after major precipitation and usually snowmelt, it swells enough that the sinkholes cannot handle the load, forming a lake on the meadow. New sinkholes then come into play, and this segmented “drainage” clears the lake water in a few weeks, flowing underground towards Csodavár. Rarely, the lake grows so large that its water spills over the low western edge of the basin. (The word “ponor” means “sinkhole” in Romanian.)

The “Ponor circus” (the circus here refers to a circular shape) exudes a true bucolic charm: flocks graze around the flat basin floor and along wavy edges framed by dense pine forest, while the northern ridge separating a valley and small rock towers called the Backdrops add rugged elements to the scene. It is worth climbing to one edge of the meadow to fully see one of Padiş’s most beautiful locations and the green basin split by a braiding creek.

The trail marked with blue dot crosses the meadow and continues along a valley joining from the north side near the creek. Higher mountains frame the end of the meadow’s extension, where at a ford we turn left. Do not cross the creek here; a few meters forward a wooden bridge aids crossing. On the other side, turn left on the blue dot trail. The short branch traverses rugged valley scenery along a rocky creek bed with fast-flowing water to the Ponor spring (also called Ponor water source / Izbucul Ponor). Water emerging from a cavity at the cliff base sinks back underground on meadows crossed earlier, below the Padiş settlement. The source cave was explored only a few tens of meters due to a siphon. (There was an abandoned sawmill at the water source in Czárán’s time.)

Forest walk on the karst ridge

We walk back along the creek to the bridge, which we do not use, instead maintaining direction to find the previous trail a few meters ahead. Following these and the blue dot (and yellow dot) signs leftwards, we gradually ascend beside the creek. The sound of rushing water fades (the creek reaches here in the deep only at low water levels), and the path winds into a mixed primeval-like forest, ascending steeply further up the valley head. A lush wilderness is cut by a small round meadow; here we reach the saddle from which we already descended to meadows at the start of the hike. Emerging from under the trees, we overlook the long-pitched pasture, where crossing right, we return to Padiş on the same path already traveled.