Pákozdi double loop

Itinerary

• Start from the parking lot on the Z+ trail, soon turning right onto the Z trail, and cover 2 km on it.
• After the Kocka, switch on the right from the Z trail to the P+ trail and run about 3 km on it.
• At the end of the P+ trail, go straight onto the P trail and run to the Angelika spring.
• At Angelika spring, choose the Z trail to the right.
• From the Z trail, turn right onto the P▲ and descend to the Barlang spring.
• From the Barlang spring, return on the P● trail to the P+ trail, turning left.
• From the P+ trail, turn left onto the S trail.
• From the S trail, turn right onto the Green Leaf trail, make a detour to Kis-Cipó, then return to the S trail.
• At the next junction, turn right from the S trail and run on the Green Leaf trail to the P+ trail.
• On the P+ trail, run down to Ingókő street, then return to Bella Lake via Arany János street and Panoráma road.

Detailed description of the route

Among the Ingókő rocks

From the Bella-tó parking lot, start on the gravel road at the end of the lake on the Z+ trail. After about 200 m, turn right onto the dirt road of Rákóczi Ferenc street, then after 50 m turn right again, continuing on the Z trail on a gently ascending, comfortable dirt road. Higher up, the shrubland becomes patchy thicket vegetation, and the landscape opens more. This means we have to pay more attention to navigation as the sparser vegetation offers fewer opportunities for trail markings.

Following the Z trail, at a point turning right, start a normal semicircle curve to the left. The dirt road remains comfortable and can be run at a brisk pace. At the midpoint of the curve, you reach a crossroads where a pine forest begins on the right; here we continue uphill to the left with the addition of the P+ marking until we arrive at the famous Pákozd swinging rocks formed by the cooling of granite magma and surface erosion. It’s not worth stopping at the first one yet because a little higher up is Pogány-kő, which is also the highest point of the first half of the run (241 m). Climbing it offers a nice view over Lake Velence: to the west, above the ridge, you can see the chimneys of Székesfehérvár, to their right in the distance is the Bakony, and to the north, you can nicely follow the Gerecse mountain range and identify Tatabánya. To the east, Meleg hill rises, and closer to the lake, the Bence-hegy lookout is also clearly visible.

Continuing from Pogány-kő, it remains true that we need to pay more attention to navigation because the terrain characteristics allow fewer trail markings. After starting, at a left bend, turn right onto a single-track trail, passing by the Oroszlán-szikla and descending to a double-track dirt road. Here it’s worth making a 20-30 meter detour to the right because you will find one of the most well-known Pákozd swinging rocks here: the Kocka. After returning to the original direction and running about 100 meters, watch out: the path starts to descend, and on the right, on a clearing hill, there are two larger oak trees, one bearing the P+ sign. Here you turn onto a single-track grassy trail and then descend into thicket. The trail is comfortable but narrow and leans here and there with holes and pits beside it, so run carefully. At the end of this section, you reach a partly sandy, soft soil, very comfortable dirt road, and run on it further. The path still slightly descends; wheel tracks are deep in some places.

Visit at Angelika spring

We arrive at the shared section connecting the two loops; in the middle of this is also the lowest point of the route (147 m), from where we start a gentle climb. At the top of the first uphill section, a quick succession of a left and then a right turn follows, then after a very short descent, we begin the second loop, now continuously but still gently ascending. Soon we enter a pleasant valley, but this really only becomes evident after a short rise when we suddenly realize we are standing on the left upper edge of a deep valley.

We run comfortably on a single-track trail through the oak-hornbeam forest, and although we ascend gently and continuously, it seems as if we suddenly descend to the bottom of the valley—in truth, the elevated ground rises to us. This is the Hurka valley junction, where the P+ trail ends, and we continue straight on the P trail. We continue on a comfortable, single-track trail through the narrowing, charming Bodza valley. On the right, we pass by large rocks and then arrive at the point where those seeking challenges can climb steeply to the entrance of the Pákozdvári cave on the PΩ trail. This is only 70 m but provides quite a workout—the cave entrance is just a hole that can be passed by crawling. After a few minutes, we reach the Angelika spring, which is both the highest (260 m) and turning point of our run.

From the spring, we continue on the P trail but only 60 meters until we reach a double-track forest road, where turning right, we follow the Z trail. A comfortable soil, straight section follows until the point where on both sides, we again encounter swinging rocks. Here, on the right, we turn onto the uphill, single-track trail of the P▲ marking. The ascent is short, and soon after, we start descending, winding on comfortable ground through a mixed hawthorn and pine forest. Where the pine forest ends, there is a steeper descent; be careful in wet weather. At a more open hawthorn section, on the left, there is a nice view of Lake Velence, then turning back into denser vegetation, we arrive at the Barlang-kúti junction, where we turn onto the P● trail to close the loop and rejoin the familiar connecting section.

On this road connecting the two loops, we run back down to the base of the hills, where the vegetation grows denser. Here, we turn left onto the S trail, on which we soon reach a T-junction where we turn left again, continuing on the S trail complemented by the Gránit nature trail’s Green Leaf marking. We run on a comfortable, gently ascending forest road between Sár-hill and Kanca-hill. At a point, turning right, we leave the S trail and follow the Green Leaf, making a roughly 400 m detour to the last of our swinging rocks, Kis-Cipó. Returning to the S trail, we pass by the Old Csordakút with watering places carved from individual rock blocks; here, the dirt road is already double track. On the left, we see Csíkmák hill with its transmission tower, then after the junction leading to Gomba-kő, 30 m after leaving the S trail, turning right, we choose the Green Leaf marking again. We run until arriving at Ingókő street’s top parking lot.

On Ingókő street, now on asphalt, we run down to Ribizli street, where we make a hairpin right turn back onto Arany János street and run to the left-sided sports field, where a narrow, unnamed little street opens between numbers 12 and 10, narrowing into a trail going uphill. We climb to Panoráma road, first turning left, then turning right at the next corner, and from here run straight back to Bella Lake.