Hiking trails in the Bârgău Mountains

What to pack for this range

• 2 l of water per person; there are no built springs on the ridges
• boots above the ankle, broken in
• a warm layer and a windproof jacket: the open ridges are windy all year
• the map offline and a power bank: the signal comes and goes
• a headtorch, if the official duration is over six hours

Tent, fire, mushrooms: what is allowed

• Camping · With conditions

  There are no built campsites in the range. Pitch for one night, in the clearings, away from the shepherds' folds and the villages.

• Fire · No

  Focul deschis e interzis în fondul forestier, în afara vetrelor amenajate.

• Mushrooms and berries · With conditions

  Picking for your own use is tolerated; on land under a logging contract, it is not.

The rules come from the Forest Code; the Bârgău Mountains have no protected area with its own regulations and no ridge refuge.

Worth knowing about the range

• 1

  The route starts beside the Tihuța Pass, the crossing Bram Stoker called the Borgo Pass in „Dracula”. A bust of him stands in Piatra Fântânele, and the hotel on the pass carries the count's name.

• 2

  In the same pass stands a steel cross 31 m high, raised in 2010 by the Bistrița-Năsăud County Council, the tallest in the country, lit at night with LEDs.

• 3

  On Heniul Mare stands a radio and television relay commissioned on 31 December 1977. The main tower is 74 m high and is served by a small cable car on twelve pylons, descending two and a half kilometres towards Prundu Bârgăului.

• 4

  Prundu Bârgăului has a railway station, on the line from Bistrița, so the route can be walked with the return by train.

• 5

  The name „The Romans' Road” is kept by locals for the old ridge track linking the Leșului valley with Piatra Fântânele.

• 6

  The Piatra Fântânele end is right below the Tihuța Pass, where the monastery from 1928 and the 31-metre cross stand.

• 7

  The route ends at Colibița, on the shore of the reservoir the locals call the sea in the mountains.

• 8

  From Colibița the Călimani routes carry on, among them the one to Tăul Zânelor and the one to the Bistricior ridge.

• 9

  The route ends at a built mineral spring, known locally as a borcut, the word used across northern Transylvania for sparkling waters.

• 10

  Salvamont Bistrița-Năsăud re-marked it in 2024, after storms had brought trees down across the access track.

• 11

  The descent ends on the E 58 road, two kilometres upstream of the Valea Străjii cabin.

• 12

  The route touches the three highest peaks of the range: Heniul Mare 1,610 m, Miroslava 1,605 m and Muncelul 1,542 m, all volcanic domes that pierced the sedimentary cover.

• 13

  From Heniul Mare, in clear weather, you see the Călimani, the Suhard and the Rodnei, and in late autumn even the Făgăraș.

What grows and what moves in the range