Nagymaros – Nógrád (OKT-17)

Itinerary

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

• We leave Nagymaros through the Church Valley to climb up to Hegyes-tető.
• After leaving the Julianus lookout, the K leads to the Törökmező tourist house.
• From Törökmező, a long forest walk follows to Kóspallag.
• From Kóspallag, we walk to the Kisinóci Tourist House.
• From the tourist house, we tackle the long ascent leading to Nagy-Hideg-hegy.
• From here, we reach the Csóványos by about 1 hour of ridge walking.
• From the Csóványos lookout, we start descending southeast to the Fultán cross.
• From the cross, crossing the Cseresnyés valley, we seek out Nógrád railway station.

Detailed about the hike

Nagymaros - Törökmező tourist house

In Nagymaros, the stamp is found on the platform of the railway station. On the side of the 14th-century church, with Gothic features, we notice window openings of different shapes and from various periods. We leave the settlement through the narrow Church Valley. The narrow path follows a deep washout, walking through beautiful, dark beech forest. Interestingly, unlike usual, beech trees that prefer coolness grow lower here, but as we ascend, the sunlit hillside is surrounded by oak forest. Our steep path soon reaches a ridge and sharply turns right, climbing back to the hilltop. The fenced holes in the ground are mining shafts dug for the possibility of precious metal extraction. We cross the Ürmös meadow, then reach the Hegyes-tető lookout, the Julianus friar tower. On the signpost by the lookout, there is a new stamp placed in May 2025.

The panorama from the bastion-like structure's top is breathtaking: we see the Danube encircling the mountain in two directions, surrounded by mountain ranges in every direction. The Naszály, the Visegrád Mountains, Burda on the other side of the Ipoly, and to the north, rising like mountain giants, the Csóványos in the middle of the Börzsöny stand out. The island mountain character of the Börzsöny is clearly outlined as it towers over the surrounding flatlands.

From the peak of only 482 meters, we start down the steep slope towards our next stop, Törökmező. We cross the forest service road several times, and from the Köves-mező clearing, we have views of the Danube and Visegrád Castle. We pass the Csapás meadow, where the distant higher peaks of Börzsöny appear again. From here, on a forest path, we arrive at Törökmező, at the tidy tourist house. The stamp is at the restaurant entrance, on the wall.

Törökmező tourist house - Nagy-Hideg-hegy

Behind the house in the small valley, there are beautiful springs worth visiting. We descend into the valley, where in a charming, peaceful forest environment we find a small dammed fishing pond. We climb through a young forest to reach the edge of Békás meadow. For the last time, we see the panorama of the High Börzsöny before we tackle the central area of the mountain region. For now, we stay low: following a creek, we reach the Kóspallag-Márianosztra road junction. Opposite, on the forest road, we continue, taking a small detour to enter Kóspallag. We pass through the youngest village of the mountain range, founded in the 18th century by settling forest worker Slovaks. From the church, we climb to the Calvary, behind it entering the forest. Within minutes, we descend and turn into a small nettle creek valley leading meters to the Kisinóci tourist house. We find the necessary stamp on the post of the beer garden.

Behind the house begins the most exciting section of the hike. We see no trace of settlements until Nógrád; the Nagy-Hideg-hegy tourist house will be the only inhabited place we pass. On a long, straight linen, on the Inóci-vágás, we start the strenuous climb. Along the way, we pass a small stone cross and a plaque: here is the memorial of young Barna Feri, who died in a fatal skiing accident in 1935. From a narrow ridge section through rocky slopes, we turn onto a diagonal forestry road, finally greeted by a dark fir patch in the High Börzsöny. From the edge of a forest clearcut, we can spot the distant Csóványos lookout. We cross the transport road and at its last curve arrive at the Nagy-Hideg-hegy tourist house. The stamp is found at the corner of the building on an information board.

Nagy-Hideg-hegy - Csóványos

On the forested slope of the 865-meter peak, ski slopes zigzag. From the special grassy peak, we admire a great view: the Naszály, the tip of the Szentendre Island, the Visegrád Mountains and the Budapest surrounding plains are all well below us. Behind the shelter, we can also spot the Gerecse rocks, and in the background of the Visegrád hills, the János hill is blue. It is worth walking out to the dozer road crossing the top of the northern ski slope because from there we can best sense the size of Börzsöny and the inner closure of the caldera: huge forest areas wave before us, and next to the nearby ridge the Csóványos-Magosfa range towers, making everything else appear small.

From Nagy-Hideg-hegy, we aim for the highest peak of the mountain region, Csóványos. An unparalleled atmosphere and a wild rugged path lead us to the lookout. Walking on the caldera rim, on a narrow ridge, feeling distant from everything. The ridge section, dotted with rock formations, windy, and pristine like a primeval forest, recalls the world of much higher volcanic mountains in the Felvidék. It is worth walking out to the panoramic Hangyás-bérc, and later we also have views from the Szabó-kövek: the hard volcanic rocks came to the surface as their less resistant counterparts wore away. Csóványos sits on a huge, untouched forested hillside, to the left the rocky ridge of the far side of the caldera rim, the Holló-kő range waves.

Next to the Korona-kő rock tower, we climb up to Csóványos’ 938 m high peak, where the stamp is found on the information board by the lookout. From the lookout, renovated in 2014, opens one of the wildest mountain vistas in the country: from the middle of Börzsöny we gaze, below us the untouched forested caldera waves. We see the Holló-kő ridge lengthwise, and next to Csóványos, the branch-structured valley network of the Fekete-patak cuts the mountainside. In the Danube Bend, the Szent Mihály Hill appears almost like a small mound, and the Visegrád Mountains here represent a modest elevation. Below the mountains lies much lower terrain, beyond the slopes of Cserhát the Mátra often reveals itself. On especially clear days, the rocky peaks of the High Tatras (and other mountain ranges in the Felvidék) are also visible on the horizon. The large-scale tree falls visible in the forests are mementos of the damage caused by the freezing rain in December 2014.

Csóványos - Nógrád

We start descending quickly from Csóványos. In a fabulous beech forest, we approach the ridge of Három-hárs through the corridor of the Fultán-vágás. On the side of the deep valley of the Szén creek, a forest clearcut opens views to a caldera-like basin, on the other side, huge, old beech “Methuselahs” accompany our steps on the windblown ridges. At one point, we have a view to the Szokolya basin and the Danube Bend. We reach the clearing of Fultán cross: a small stone cross commemorates a forest ranger killed by poachers in the 19th century.

We leave the clearing southwards, but be careful: the forestry road turns right, but we must abruptly turn left, southward! We hike on the descending ridge of Saj-kút-bér, descending into the Cseresnyés valley. We cross a transport road, then from the ford of the creek begin the final ascent to cross the peripheral mountain range of Börzsöny. Here and there muddy, brushy, wild boar rooted sections mark the trail. These are meters of decay: on one side, a deserted military area crumbles, on the other once stood a tourist house. Finally, we reach pastures from which Nógrád village’s small volcanic hill with its castle ruins is already clearly visible. We leave the old Jewish cemetery and the charming Calvary hill, finally arriving in Nógrád along the railroad. To reach the stamp, we must walk along the tracks to the station building where the stamp box is located.