Karkonosze
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Today I will write about one of the most beautiful (in my opinion) mountains in Poland - Karkonosze.
Karkonosze (in Czech: Krkonoše, in German: Riesengebirge, in English: Giant Mountains) are mountain range located south-west of Poland and northern Czech Republic and they are part of the Sudetes mountain system. Large part of the mountain is part of National Park, both on the Czech and Polish side and is biosphere reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme.In this post I will focus on the Polish part of Karkonosze. In Poland there are two major cities in Karkonosze: Karpacz i Szklarska Poręba and they are the best places to start adventure in these mountains. In my opinion the best option is a 2-day or 3-day trip Karpacz - Szklarska Poręba (or Szklarska Poręba - Karpacz) along the ridge of Karkonosze where you can see the most beautiful places of this part of Poland:
- Śnieżka - the highest peak of Karkonosze, 1602 meters above sea level (a visibility in favourable conditions surpasses 200 km!). On Śnieżka is also Meteorological Observatory.
- Szklarka Waterfall (520meters above sea level) - the most popular waterfall in Karkonosze, not as tall as a waterfall Kamieńczyk, but equally beautiful ( or even more beautiful).
- Kamienczyk Waterfall (846 meters above sea level) - the highest waterfall in Polsih part of Sudety, water falls from 27 meters.
- Small Pond Cauldron - glacial kettle at the foot of the Równia pod Śnieżką and Smogornia Peak
- A lot of peaks, passes and rock formations on the trail, but there are too many to describe them in one post ;-)
Small Pond Cauldron
All photos in this post I took during trip in september 2008.
Check http://www.karpacz.net/multimedia/ website for more free photos.