Pieniny National Park

A small range with a gorge through the middle

The park’s English page calls the Pieniny tiny and rocky, set between the Gorce, the Tatras and the Beskids, with a checkerboard of small fields at the foot and craggy peaks among forest and meadow. The two names it puts first are Trzy Korony and Sokolica, the second with a relic pine on the rock. It also names the Apollo butterfly, which it says survived in Poland mainly in the Pieniny, and whose breeding by the park contributed to that survival. The logo text says the gorge and Trzy Korony draw about 150,000 tourists a year. The massif sits between the Szopka Pass on the west and the Pieniński Potok valley on the east. From the platform on Okrąglica the page lists the Dunajec Gorge, the park, the Tatras, Beskid Sądecki, the Gorce, Beskid Żywiecki and Spiš Magura, and, in good weather, Babia Góra 63 kilometres away.

The same page counts the cultural sites as the ruins of two medieval castles inside the park and a third, well preserved, standing on the border. It names the castle in Czorsztyn, on ul. Zamkowa, as open all year. Rafting on the Dunajec is listed as a separate attraction inside the park, April to October, starting at Sromowce Niżne or Wyżne and ending at Krościenko or Szczawnica. The Pieniny Path along the gorge is listed as open all year. Those two are marked on the park page. The boat rules belong to the raft operators.

The 6.4-kilometre walk to Trzy Korony

The published walk is 6.4 kilometres and starts at the exhibition pavilion in Sromowce Niżne. That pavilion holds a small display on the rock ecosystems, the Apollo, a map, and an ethnographic exhibition, and the page says the whole Trzy Korony massif is best seen from there. The Sobczański Gorge on the way has rock walls, peaks, screes and many small habitats. At the end of the gorge is a rock the page compares to a pile of hay. A steep climb through forest reaches the Szopka Pass and a species-rich Pieniny meadow, then the highest meadows in the park. From June to August the Apollo is among the butterflies there. The last steps to the gallery cross rocks the page calls the richest rock flora in the Pieniny. The descent is north-east, through Carpathian beech with patches of mountain sycamore and old trees, back to the yellow trail the walk started on.

Sokolica is the other gallery with a platform. The English page gives it as open all year, like Trzy Korony. Walking in the whole park is 7 trails and 29.19 kilometres. Two educational paths add 0.82 kilometres. Bikes are allowed only on listed sections: the Pieniny Path in Szczawnica on the red trail, the road to Kras in Krościenko on the green trail, and the county road Krośnica–Sromowce Wyżne. Skis may use the walking trails and the clearings those trails cross, except the blue trail from the Szczawnica ferry to Bajków Groń. Walkers have priority over skiers.

Pavilions at the gates

Education pavilions stand at the entrances in Czorsztyn (Majerz), Szczawnica, Sromowce Niżne, and at the rafting marina in Sromowce Wyżne-Kąty. They are open April to October. The nature exhibition at the park headquarters, ul. Jagiellońska 107B in Krościenko nad Dunajcem, is open all year.