To the Cozia National Park we’ve been before, two years ago in July more exactly, so it’s not the first time we wonder around these beautiful mountains. But, as we still had some more to discover up on the cliffs and as some of our friends have never been here before, we planned another trip over one not so warm and sunny weekend in July.

We left early in the morning from Sibiu and drove to the village of Dangesti. From there to get to the Cozia Chalet, there is a forest road, which seems to be accessible by car. We decided to leave our car in the village and talked to someone there who took us up with a 4×4 Aro car. I say that the road seems to be accessible by any type of car, because during the weekend we saw, near the chalet, all sorts of cars, even the smallest ones. So, even if the road looks a bit scary, you can get up with a bit of attention.

The forest road is about one hour drive to the Cozia Chalet. We got there quite early in the morning and everywhere we looked we couldn’t see anything. There was only fog.

So the situation for the day didn’t look too good  and we decided just to wonder around the chalet and hope that on Sunday the weather would look a bit better. As we looked around and seeing all the fog, it looked as if it was winter, not full summer.

Fortunatelly, the fog went away around lunch time, and we took a short trip to the Armasarul Refuge. The refuge is not on a marked path and you have to know about it to get to it. Until a certain point you have to follow the red triangle , red line and blue line trails (about 30 minutes after leaving the Cozia Chalet) and then you have to go into the forest.

At the refuge we stayed for a couple of hours as my aunt was there for the night and afterwards we went back to the Cozia Chalet, but we made a quick stop in a very nice place that offered us a perfect view over the mountains and the river Olt.

It seems that the clouds were good for something in the end.

We spent about 30 minutes in this place, photographing the sky and the clouds and not having enough of it.

At night, the sky cleared up, all the clouds disappeared and we got instead an absolutely beautiful full moon. Unfortunately, we didn’t know how to set our photo camera to get a perfect image of the moon. But here it is, big and beautiful.

The next day, we woke up and there was sun everywhere and a perfectly clear sky so the perfect opportunity to go on a trip to the Stone Gate. We followed the red circle path from the Cozia Chalet and it took us about 2 hours to get to our destination. But actually, first we went back to the place we had been the evening before to get the same view, but now with a very clear sky.

And it was again amazing.

So as I said, we followed the red circle path which actually starts on the main road that gets to the Cozia Chalet.

At a certain point it makes a left turn and gets to the Mocirle Sheepfold. Mocirle is the Romanian word for mud, so expect to get to a muddy area, with water here and there so be careful where you step.

From here we go up and then get into the forest for the last 45 minutes of the trip.

And in the end we get to the Stone Gate (Poarta de Piatra).

We relaxed here for a bit and then headed back to the Cozia Chalet on the same way we came.

And that was about it for the weekend. It was a more relaxing weekend, with not too much hiking, but just enjoying the view and spending some nice time with some very nice people.

The Cozia Chalet is situated at about 1500 m high and it offers accommodation for people who want to visit the Cozia Natural Park. Unfortunately, as it is quite easy reachable by car, you might happen to meet people who don’t know that they should respect the fact that others came there to relax and hear nothing else but the wind…But this is a different story.