Visit from Lillafüred to the Bükk Plateau

Itinerary:

• We start next to the Palotaszálló heading towards the Hámori Lake on the P trail, then follow it for more than half of the route through the Garadna and Savós Valley to the Létrás Peak.
• From the Jávorkút road at Létrás Peak, turn left on the S trail; this leads back to Lillafüred through the Vesszős Valley.
• In the last section, from the edge of Lillafüred (camping), we walk back to the Lillafüred narrow-gauge train station on the P trail.

Detailed description of the hike:

Walk along the shore of Hámori Lake in the Garadna Valley

We start from the narrow-gauge train at Lillafüred station near the historic forestry building. From the wooden covered platform at the station, we descend down the staircase leading to the tunnel under the tracks to the Palotaszálló level. The romantic building constructed in the early 20th century stands like a true castle guarding the valleys at the meeting of the Szinva and Garadna streams in a picturesque environment. Its original surroundings have changed significantly; compared to the earlier gorge forest, we now walk in a landscaped and built-up area. At the meeting of the two valleys, the travertine barrier formed by the difference in height and the water high in dissolved calcium was built in with a hanging garden. The stream that originally made various waterfalls tumbling on the travertine was redirected to the valley’s edge, and the artificially created waterfall became the largest waterfall in Hungary.

We bypass the garden of Palotaszálló on the left on the P trail, cross to the other side at the parking entrance near the Felsőtárkány road bend to the round-roofed hut locally called “numb mouse.” Behind the souvenir hut, the promenade winds between retaining walls to the shore of Hámori Lake. One might think the lake was dammed due to the scenic view, but it was actually created to supply water for iron hammers in the Szinva Valley. Although a lake naturally formed here by the natural damming of travertine barriers, used as fish ponds by Diósgyőr’s Pauline monks, the current dam was built in the early 19th century to supply water energy evenly to the iron hammers. The lake was used by tourists who also still row on it, and in the early 20th century, a bathing area was created on the far shore to cool off in the fresh waters.

On the shady side of the emerald-green water surface, we walk on a pleasant lakeside promenade. We pass a boathouse in the middle of the lake, after which we have a beautiful view of the shining Palotaszálló reflected on the water and the over one-kilometer-long water surface. The promenade winds between rocks in the middle of the lake, then at a resting place, we cross a brook. The small creek originates from the Esperanto Spring fed from the plateau. The cozy spring terrace can be reached by a short walk along a small path. On the lakeshore, we arrive at the confluence of the Garadna stream beside a crag and some huge beeches fallen into the water, where rich aquatic life thrives. In spring, marsh marigolds and marsh helleborines bloom, and lush vegetation grows here all year round at the meeting of the lake and the marsh environment.

Leaving the lake’s end, we walk along the edge of a wide alder swamp occupying the entire valley bottom. The stream here loses its gradient and gradually fills the valley bottom with sediments from the Bükk during floods, while deepening its multiple-branched bed otherwise. A true aquatic paradise has formed here: kingfishers and dippers are often seen over the stream, herons and the rare black stork also occur in the marsh, while the frog eagle prowls as a real curiosity in the dense alder forest. In spring, the area is loud with the mating calls of frogs, and an uninterrupted field of marsh marigolds brightens the shady swampy world yellow. At a clearing bordered by riparian aspen leaves on the left, the narrow-gauge railway viaduct appears, crossing the steep gorge deeply cutting into the Savós Valley. Here the tourist path also turns off from the gentle valley floor to suddenly climb to the plateau with a steep ascent.

Ascent to the Bükk Plateau

Leaving the previously comfortable promenade, we begin the climb out of the valley on a wild hiking trail with a steep ascent. Crossing under the narrow-gauge railway bridge, we start the climb through a limestone gorge with jagged edges and limestone boulders. The notorious Savós Valley will test you for the mountain experience.

From the right, the asphalt road leading to Jávorkút enters and wildly winds several times across our path. We also move to the gentler left side of the valley, as the paved road does. We walk through a cathedral-like beech forest characteristic of the northern sides of Bükk on the gently sloping path.

In the upper section of Savós Valley, the mountainside becomes rocky again. More and more young candle trees and beeches are broken or bent in arches, many fallen trees are seen here. These are the victims of the April 2017 snowfall when heavy snow fell on the fully leafed Bükk Plateau, breaking and bending most of the trees. Above 500 meters, it was cold enough for snowfall, and up to 700 meters elevation, the forest was leafy, so this zone bore the most load and was the most damaged.

Létrás Peak, the eastern edge of the plateau

The steep rocky mountains looming towards us are getting closer as we step out with the Jávorkút road at the flattened valley head onto the long, stretched clearing of Létrás Peak. It is worth making a short few-hundred-meter detour on the asphalt road, where two collapsed cave entrances can be seen, offering a view into the mountain’s depths and the rocks forming the plateau.

The flat of Létrás Peak, with its layers and deep pits, is the eastern termination of the limestone block that makes up most of the Bükk Plateau. In the soluble limestone, cracks formed by the mountain’s uplift are widened into caves by rainwater seeping deep, which collects inside the mountain and emerges at valley bottoms. The dissolved limestone causes pits and dolines on the plateau, while the valley bottoms have limestone dams built anew, as seen also at the travertine barriers under Palotaszálló.

We cross the Jávorkút road at the entrance of Savós Valley and cut through shrubby depressions on the Létrás meadows following the S trail. For over a kilometer, we zigzag through dolines, looking for the most level route. The plateau meadows bloom with a flower carpet from spring to autumn, from the yellow cowslip to the faint lilac-capped autumn crocus. To the southeast, the meadow opens up more and more, segmented only by blackthorn bushes and birch groups.

On the opposite side opens the now united Szepesi-Láner cave system, which is believed to be part of an extensive cave network. In the mid-20th century, they “painted” the water of the cave lake at the end, which after a few days surfaced again in several springs, both in the Garadna and Szinva valleys.

On the far side of the meadow, we continue in a respectable windbreak forest on the forestry road. We cross one last gentle ascent to the Vesszős side saddle. We cross a dozer road leading left to the nearby István-lápai cave, which was long considered Hungary’s deepest cave. The currently known passages reach a significant depth of 245 meters, but there is certainly more beyond the underwater narrowing as the waters here emerge in the Garadna and Szinva valleys, hinting at continuation.

Race to Lillafüred in the Vesszős Valley

On the far side of the saddle, we start descending gently on the old beech forest along the S trail. For a large area, the path runs through young growth left from snow and wind damage, increasingly cutting sharply into the eastern drop of the plateau. Here begins the Vesszős Valley, initially appearing as a gentle hollow. The road once ran through this debris-filled hollow but now must bypass the impassable valley bottom on the side. In the forming gorge, we go deep into the rocky valley bottom. A tricky, ankle-twisting descent follows, which can be avoided on a gentle but unmarked forestry road starting from the saddle.

We cross this dozer road in both the upper and lower sections of the valley. At the first crossing, where the forestry road makes a loop, we already walk in the hall of tall beeches in the increasingly shady, deep-cut valley. To the right welcomes a resting spot and a claimed karst spring. It is worthwhile to rest and refresh at the Vesszős spring; the harder part of the descent is behind us. The lower section of the valley is less steep, with rocky sides arching high above on both sides.

The ridge on the right bends towards us, so we veer left in a gentle curve with the valley. At the rocky valley mouth, on a small path to the left, we can discover a cave collapse in a crack beneath a rock wall. We ascend a staircase to the bottom of Szinva Valley, where we cross the Egri country road and arrive at the terminus of bus number 5. We can end the hike here or close the loop with a short walk back to the narrow-gauge train station.

Crossing over the Szinva stream, near the former military buildings beside the sports park, a pleasant promenade winds up the hillside. At the foot of Fehér-kő, we follow the P and Z trails left along the forest path passing a statue of Mary, from where the sharply rising limestone layers continue on the eastern scarp of the plateau. To the right of the rock ridge opens the Saint Stephen cave, the former spring cave of the waters infiltrating at Létrás Peak, which has been developed, illuminated, and opened to the public.

A tunnel leads through the imposing limestone slabs, then on the other side, the promenade traverses sideways on a terrace in a rocky environment. Turning towards the valley bottom, the Z trail goes along the buffet and bazaar row, while the P trail descends along the rocks beside the Szinva stream to the park behind Lillafüred railway station, from where the wooden, historic station building and the end of our hike are already visible.