Nagy-nyugodó – Hollóháza (OKT-27)

Itiner

During the route, we must follow the K marking all the way.

• We hike over the mountains from Nagy-Nyugodó to Vágáshuta.
• From Vágáshuta, our next target is Nagyhuta.
• From Nagyhuta, we arrive at Pálháza passing through the next village, Kishuta.
• From Pálháza we walk to Füzérradvány.
• From Füzérradvány, we climb up to Korom-tető, then via Füzérkajata and Pusztafalu we head to Füzér, famous for its castle.
• We climb up to Nagy-Milic.
• We descend from Milic to Bodó-rét.
• We finish our hike in Hollóháza.

Detailed description of the hike

Nagy-Nyugodó – Vágáshuta

The trail starts from the saddle of Nagy-Nyugodó marked by the Blue Trail sign. We ascend at the edge of the basin enclosed by the three-sided Sátoros Mountains, while our path climbs sideways along the slope of Kecske-hát. Arriving at the Vörös-nyereg (Red Saddle), we can decide to explore more of the mountain group using the branching hiking network, for example climbing to the summit of Magas-hegy equipped with a lookout, toboggan and chairlift, from where we can slide down the zipline track to the neighboring, lower Szár-hill.

The Blue Trail descends on a long, knee-challenging slope toward the clearing of Körtefa-nyereg. The route initially passes through a beautiful wind-beech forest above, then changes as we reach the asphalt road of Rudabányácska. We only walk on this briefly to reach the forest accommodation of Vöröskő Guesthouse (formerly a forester's lodge). The Blue Trail turns left here and, following the signs, we cross rolling hills toward Vágáshuta. We climb a low ridge passing by the side valleys of the Tarda valley. We have to overcome gullies and erosion channels, finally leaving the wet Mocsár meadow behind. With one last big bend, we reach the road junction next to Vágáshuta, our forest dirt road descends. From one of the nearby clearings, the enormous, forested block of Nagy-Milic appears, with the white walls of the castle in Füzér "shining" below.

At Vágáshuta, look for the stamp on the Blue Trail sign next to the phone booth! The village, as its name suggests, is an old mountain settlement whose residents engaged in glassmaking. Only the part of the narrow valley called Dolina (meaning valley in Slavic languages), a single-street settlement section, fit here, with Kispart and Nagypart built on higher parts. The latter mostly consists of many holiday homes – tourism has almost disappeared in present-day Vágáshuta, offering complete tranquility and a cared-for, friendly environment for visitors.

Vágáshuta – Nagyhuta

We start on a concrete road toward the neighboring settlement. We walk through a valley framed by hills widening gradually, leaving behind the Margit spring on the left side. We enter a side valley, where in summer, clouds of horseflies drive us through the forest. Finally, we climb the hill above Nagyhuta and arrive at this village, compressed even more by the mountains than the previous one, through a narrow street. The stamp can be found on the fence of the municipal hall.

Nagyhuta – Füzérradvány

We walk on smooth forest asphalt through Kishuta. The two hut villages were founded at the beginning of the 18th century; their Slovak population produced glass using the surrounding forests, later their wire and glass craftspeople traveled to even the farthest corners of the country. Kishuta is surprisingly long; we can traverse its main street in about 45 minutes, which intersects with the narrow-gauge Pálháza Forest Railway line. The narrow-gauge railway is an interesting industrial heritage of the Tokaj Mountains: today it transports tourists between Pálháza and Rostalló, but until the early 1980s, the tracks extended as far as Sárospatak from Füzérkomlós, and at one time, the network reached as far as Nyíregyháza.

We leave Kishuta on the connecting road to Pálháza beside the railway tracks, which soon curve into the forest, moving away from the asphalt. The walk to Pálháza takes just over half an hour without elevation gain; the only curiosity is the perlite mine whose noise can be heard from afar. This is the only place in the country where perlite, mainly used as thermal and sound insulation material and secondarily as a filter material, has been mined since 1958. The rock is a variety of rhyolite formed by the effect of acidic magma and a wet environment.

We enter Pálháza, Hungary's smallest town, walking beside the narrow-gauge railway tracks. Here, we can choose from several restaurants and accommodation options, and it is also the easiest place to travel home from. The K marking leads up to Füzérradvány on a low-traffic, winding connecting road – looking back, sometimes there is a beautiful view of the mountains beyond the fields. The village, sitting on the skirt of Korom-tető, is notable for the Károlyi Castle, redesigned in the 19th century based on plans by Miklós Ybl, whose park was started in the 18th century and mostly built in the early 20th century. The English garden has several hundred-year-old tree matriarchs, a lake and many kilometers of walking paths, while the castle houses an exhibition presenting its history and former daily life.

In the center of Füzérradvány, across from the church, there is a board where we find the Blue Trail stamp.

Füzérradvány – Füzér

We leave the village along the fence of the castle park and start to climb gently on the side of the Korom-tető massif. At one point, we can still look into the castle park before entering the mixed oak forest – which is in particularly good condition despite the access road. The natural conditions have been preserved partly thanks to the border running along the ridge, and when the Telkibánya miners searched for gold ore here in the early 19th century, they found kaolin. The mine is still operational and supplies raw material for the porcelain factory in Hollóháza. Millstones were also mined here, so the mountain's interior interested locals more for a long time than its trees.

The Blue Trail diverges left from the access road and ascends a suddenly steep slope. The terrain changes: a sign informs us that forest management maintains relatively natural conditions, as seen in the forest where dead trees litter the ground, among which large boulders cover the soil. The phenomenon, resembling a stone sea, is not fully natural as it partly consists of rock material from an old millstone mine higher up. The path turns left and maintains elevation, with the environment being the most spectacular: moss covers everything, including car-sized boulders and the rotten tree trunks trapped between them.

There are allegedly half-made millstones on the slope. The path broadens into an abandoned access road, and after its slope, on our right, we can discover the old curved walls of the former millstone mine among the trees. The rhyolite tuff, hardened by siliceous solutions, is excellently carveable, yet sufficiently resistant for use as millstones, and better quality stones were also quarried nearby: at Megyer Hill near Sárospatak, famous for its shape and appearance.

The Blue Trail bends right on a stone-edged path, ascending the increasingly steep mountainside. The terrain is marked by surface traces of mining: hollows and many broad pits everywhere. These were caused by collapse mining, where the ground above old tunnels subsided. Moss is a frequent decorative element here too, and the landscape and forest are quite diverse. We reach an access road where the terrain smooths out, and a uniform middle-aged oak forest covers the mountain.

Among the depressions formed by collapsed mine entrances, there are lakes like Kis-Büdös Lake, after which the road turns toward the summit. We wind through dense and now mixed forests, and after passing the ridge, beech forest appears. The mountain is also covered by a mining hollow field, but this is absent on the slope. Dark wind-beech covers the upper Korom-tető; to the left, among the tree trunks, we can spot Kenyhercz Spring built with a bench, table, and small wooden cabin. The spring, named after the former estate forester, flows even in drier seasons, and it is the only resting place between Füzérradvány and Füzérkajata.

Descending, we can see that round clearings in the forest allow light, thus creating varied conditions where trees of all ages appear in the future primeval forest. Eventually, we reach an access road on the edge of a young forest and turn left. Here, on the left, stands a huge leave tree (left to ensure fruit production during old logging), the "200-year-old oak." The road offers no further excitement until Füzérkajata, walking past a forester's lodge and on a wide access road and then asphalt, we turn into the small dead-end village of Füzérkajata.

Along the street, rest areas equipped with benches and tables line up densely; from the first to the left, we can look toward the center of the Tokaj Mountains. The road to the far side of Füzérkajata is short, where we turn out of the village by an orchard. We undulate briefly with the dirt road in the forest until we reach Török-föld, where the atmosphere of the route changes completely. Opposite finally appears the castle sitting on the rocky ridge of Füzér, with the wooded mountains of the Milic group beside it and the bare rock of Mejeszke opposite. We pass a wide curve on the meadow, then after a short forest walk, we stand on the edge of the former pastures and meadows of Pusztafalu, from where we can observe the Füzér castle more closely – and to the right, the rocky face of Tolvaj-hegy unfolds.

Among the bare rocks, the largest is Sólyom-kő, but thanks to several smaller-sized ones, this is the rockiest volcanic mountain east of the Danube Bend. It is worth knowing that the National Blue Trail began in the 1930s from the summit because forest owners did not want to let tourists pass through the chosen Nagy-Milic.

On a panoramic, scenic dirt road, we enter the repeatedly depopulated Pusztafalu, which has a Transylvanian landscape character due to Tolvaj-hegy. We turn gently out of the settlement beside a cemetery with wooden memorial posts, and cross the meadow lying in front of Tolvaj-hegy to the foot of Mejeszke. From the forest path, a S▲ sign branches off to the right; though hard to follow, the orange trapezoid signs of the Via Carpatica Vulcanica are more visible. It is highly recommended to take the approximately 10-minute detour to Mejeszke Rock – where the forest road sharply turns right, the path leads back to the lookout. If found, we can walk out onto the rocky ridge behind the pines, as the panorama is spectacular: opposite is Bába Hill's wooded block, below stretches the Hegyköz, and on the far side rolls the entire mass of the Tokaj Mountains' center. Looking left, in the distance, is the Slovak (Mátra height) Vihorlát, behind which looms the Carpathian hills above Uzhhorod.

Returning to the K marking, we walk for a while at the edge of the forest but under the trees, then reach a large clearing. Since it slopes, on the other side are visible the entire Hegyköz basin and the Tokaj Mountains, with Csattantyús Hill rising above other hills in the center, and to the left, the cones of the Sátoros Mountains line up. After another mixed forest belt, we reach the lands of Füzér, and after a short climb, the Füzér castle appears ahead. The dark dacite cliff beneath the walls formed by the cooling of magma trapped in a volcanic vent is very hard and resists erosion better than its surroundings, hence the steep rise above the landscape. To the left, beneath a group of trees, stands a dome-shaped, bench-equipped small rain shelter. To the left, we can still glance at the massive appearance of the mountain range's central part, then arrive at one of Füzér's streets. The stamp is found on a sign on the right side of the road in the village center.

Füzér – Kis-Milic

We leave Füzér on the asphalt road winding below the Castle Hill. On the other side, at the parking lot (which has a restaurant and stamping place), we can take a detour to the castle. The approach path, featuring rock steps and rock turf, is special, but the reconstructed and largely renovated building is an almost obligatory detour. After the Battle of Mohács defeat, Péter Perényi temporarily placed the holy crown here for a few months. Thanks to renovation works, instead of ruins, we can tour a complete, real castle inside and out, enriched with numerous interactive elements for exploration joy. We can enjoy a panoramic view of the Tokaj Mountains from the walls.

After the ample spring outlet of the Castle Spring, we tackle one of the Blue Trail's most tiring climbs. The hiking path runs on an even level still on the side of Magas-hegy; from a point, we have a view over Pusztafalu basin. Turning into a valley, the long climb begins. The Blue Trail accompanies a gorge-like hollow; we arrive at the wooden porch forest lodge of Alsó-Csata-rét surrounded by a beech forest. We proceed higher through wind-beech, on a wild trail winding up the particularly steep side of Kis-Milic. We leave a sharp-edged andesite tooth behind – this formation can also be seen in the Half a Million Steps in Hungary series; the difference being that at that time it was a huge treeless area surrounded by clear-cutting.

Now in the forest, we reach the Kis-Milic lookout, which once offered a splendid view of the entire mountain mass but is closed due to its degraded condition. We ascend the 893-meter summit of the nearby Nagy-Milic on the border line, where a large concrete obelisk stands. The stamp can be found beside the bench, on the Blue Trail signpost.

Kis-Milic – Hollóháza

Before leaving the border zone, we still encounter a typical Slovak informational sign with a hat-shaped top, then descend. We wind down to the Lászlótanya fence through a militarily arranged, cool wind-beech forest. The Károlyi hunting lodge standing inside is a closed private area; formerly, the park was the starting point of the Blue Trail. We reach asphalt but can admire the wild forest up to Bodó-rét. A few holiday homes stand on the clearing, from among the trees we can narrowly see Kassa and the Kojsói-havasok mountain chain above it. Do not forget to stamp with the stamp available on the rain shelter post!

We soon turn right from the main road and walk parallel under the trees. At one point, we cross the asphalt strip and then descend steeply on a stony road to arrive at the swampy, shrubby clearing of Dög-tér. In summer heat, the air can be uncomfortably warm and humid here, and the path through the thicket does not make things easier. We cover the last kilometer again through the forest on a wide access road, and finally, turning into the houses, we take the main road and aim for one of Hollóháza's landmarks, the monument marking the National Blue Trail's end or start point (stamping place). Its pair is found in the Kőszegi Mountains.