Vértes lookout circuit

From Szár, we do not start towards the real block of the Vértes yet, but first we aim for a separate ridge north of the settlement. The red mark goes under the railway tracks, and it makes you doubt immediately: is this really the hiking trail? The path cuts itself into a bush grown to human size along the embankment, then goes out among trees next to the busy Route 1. We cross it and wind extensively on interlocking forestry dirt roads. We walk in increasingly dense forest, and eventually the slope becomes noticeably steeper. We climb up the side of Zuppa Hill, then suddenly come out of the dense forest onto a sun-dried clearing. From here on, groves dot the closed forest. At one point two blue triangle marks start to the left – it doesn't matter which one we choose, they merge. We head left, and the trees occasionally disappear beside the path. The mountainside becomes rockier until we finally reach the Zuppa Hill, decorated also with a cross..

From the steeply descending western slope, there is a nice view of the plain lying south of the Vértes, the patchwork of forests and clearings on the mountain range's sides, and the railway line running in the valley. To the right sit the houses of Szárliget in the ditch, behind them small ridges obscure some parts of Tatabánya. Opposite is the highest part of the Vértes, Nagy-Csákány (487 m).

Following the path, we begin a steep descent towards Szárliget. The triangle sign soon loops back to the red, which connects to the Blue Trail. We walk on a clayey, pleasant forest hollow road in the Cseresznyés Valley to reach the corner of Szárliget. On the quiet main street of the settlement, we have to walk a long way; at the store next to the train station, we can restock our supplies. We cross over the tracks, and after another long village walk (along the way, we can detour right to a confectionery), we reach the football pitch and the edge of the village. We pass by a sunflower plantation, looking back at the hills of Gerecse stretching from Somlyó to Gerecse Hill.

We cross Route 1 again and arrive at the Csákányospuszta tourist house at the end of the Blue Trail winding past the pastures. Behind the house, in dense forest, starts the blue cross-marked trail, by which we can approach our next viewpoint, the Körtvélyes Lookout. From the wooden tower built on the small clearing, a magnificent panorama opens to the north and east: over Tatabánya rise the large, plateau-capped ridges of Gerecse. Among the forested hills, small villages hide; turning right, we can discover our previous stop, Zuppa reaching its peak in rocky form. Behind it, on the other side of the flat land – if humidity is not too high – we can also spot János Hill and Széchenyi Hill. In the opposite direction, there is not much to see: the plateau sloping towards us from the Vértes is covered by patchy forest of afforestation, and attentive viewers may spot the red and white striped top of the other Körtvélyes geodetic observation tower (our later station) in the middle of the scene.

From the lookout, we descend southwest to the Blue Trail, turn right on it, and walk through nice forest past the old cemetery of Körtvélyespuszta. Soon we reach a fork: under the pines, the Béla spring starts. The blue trail circumvents the afforestation from the right, our path (blue cross) from the left. We turn right among forestry and camp buildings to enter another very dark pine forest planted in regular rows. At its lower corner, our path merges with the red marking: if we follow the branch descending the plateau edge, we can take a half-hour detour to the Grácia Rocks.

As the path turns deeper, a sign and a small circle on a tree indicate a trail starting right towards the "Grácia ridge." Follow the densely painted markers, and you won't be disappointed! The Vértes plateaus are cut by wide but shallow structural ditches running northeast-southwest. The small plateaus break gently in some places and with sharp edges in others at the junction of these two structural forms. On such a ditch edge, we find the dolomite ridges of the Grácia Rocks. Due to their slight elevation differences and relative featurelessness, the Vértes does not have many natural viewpoints, but here no building is needed. We can observe the forests rising on the far edge of the ditch and, looking north, we can survey Környe and the Danube plain.

Returning to the red mark forestry road marks the beginning of the most monotonous section of the hike. We walk through forests hardly showing signs of naturalness, mainly used for hunting, keeping roughly a straight southeast direction. However, this few kilometers can be done quickly since we mostly move on flat terrain. At the red triangle junction, we turn right to visit the highest accessible viewpoint in the Vértes. The 480-meter point of Körtvélyes (Lookout Hill) is not really a peak: beside the geodetic observation tower lies the cliff edge of the Nagy-Csákány plateau, the same structural line we visited once at the Grácia Rocks.

The inscription on the concrete cylinder warns that climbing is forbidden and also dangerous. Nevertheless, many attempt to climb the tower, although entry is prohibited. At a glance, both the ladders and the levels they connect are in very poor condition. Peeling iron and rust are everywhere in the dark cage, which has 5 levels leading to the roof. Up there, we can contemplate an almost unbroken circular panorama: from the centrally built tower, mostly the undulating surface of the Vértes unfolds before us. To the west, we see the moderately varied plateaus whose monotonous forest surfaces are slightly broken only by game fields and forests planted in different periods. To the south beyond a valley end lies a plain, and beyond that the Velence Hills appear. Toward the capital, we can see “Etyekwood,” the film studio at Etyek, and the hills of Budapest. Northeast, the higher ridges of Gerecse appear above the edge of the Vértes.

The area around the lookout tower is an unmoving, oppressive forest section, further worsened by the grim concrete cylinder and its entrance yawning like a dark mouth. The red trail soon changes its character: after about 1 kilometer of forest walking, it leads to the rocky grasslands of the mountain ridge. From the atmospheric, grove-covered clearing, there is a nice panorama towards the Velence Hills, and we can also see how the Vértes blends into the flat surroundings.

After another forest section, we briefly follow an asphalt road and then arrive at the edge of Szár by a dirt road. Over a pasture fence, we can still see the Zuppa Hill rising on the other side of the open terrain, to which we climbed hours earlier. This closes the near 30-kilometer loop during which we got acquainted with the panoramas near Nagy-Csákány. It takes about 20-25 minutes through the village streets to reach the platform of the train station at the edge of the settlement.