October 3, 2020

Autumn has arrived. The days are getting shorter and colder. But hiking isn’t just worth it in the summer. Every season has its own beauty, so we didn’t stay home either. On this hike too we got spontaneously, we packed enough food and drink for a day, and around 9 a.m. Saturday morning we headed to the Vlădeasa peak.

Driving to the Vlădeasa Chalet:

We drove for 2 and a half hours, and at Huedin we headed to the village Săcuieu. At the Săcuieu we continued to the right and we approached the Vlădeasa chalet from the next valley, which goes to Vișagu. We left the car in a wider parking lot and set off on foot on the autumn forest road.

USEFUL INFO: On this read it is not possible to get by car to the Vlădeasa Chalet, only with an off-road vehicle.

USEFUL INFO: The Vlădeasa Chalet can be reached by car. To do this, in Săcuieu you need to head to Rogojel on the DC129 road.  

DC129

DJ103J

There was silence in the woods, the sunlight gently stroking our faces. The road slowly meandered upwards. The deciduous trees were slowly replaced by the evergreen pine, under which we found blueberries even in October. Where there were no trees by the road and the sun’s rays reached and warmed the stones, we stumbled into glass lizards. In the Western Carpathians, bears are not yet as spread as in the rest of the mountains, but I still blew my whistle sometimes, for sure. 

I don’t know how busy this trail is in the summer, but now it wasn’t at all. We only met people at the Vlădeasa Chalet. 

From the Chalet we continued on the red dot which goes up the ski slope, this is the steepest part of the hike. We rose to a level of about 600 m before we reached the ridge. Being nice weather, we could see the autumn landscape far enough.

We passed the Brițelor peak 1794 m and soon reached the Watching Meteorological Station.. According to the map, the peak is here, but we did not find a peak, so we went further and about 500m closer saw the peak indicator, Vlădeasa peak 1836 m, the second highest peak in the Apuseni Mountain.

The sun was barely strong anymore, we hid from the cold wind in the wind shade of a dwarf pine, and after a few bits we set off back on the same route to the car.

I can only recommend this great hike! Easy accessible and easy hiking. We made it harder with the kilometers, but if you just start from the Vlădeasa Chalet it really doesn’t cause any difficulty. I can also imagine it as a winter hike, it has no dangerous section.