Ciucaș, Autumn Day Hike
One day, one tracked hike up to Vârful Ciucaș
Read from a single GPS-tracked workout starting at the Cabana Vârful Ciucaș saddle above Cheia, climbing past Tigăile Mari to the Vârful Ciucaș summit, plus 87 photos from the same cluster.
One autumn day, 5.9 km of trail and 375 m of climb up out of the Cabana Vârful Ciucaș saddle above Cheia, topping out at Vârful Ciucaș, 1,954 m - the high point of the Ciucaș massif. A same-day drive-and-hike, 87 photos from the ridge and the Tigăile Mari rock pinnacles, no overnight. Ciucaș is the quieter ridge east of the Prahova Valley, the standard Bucharest day-hike for people who want a Carpathian summit without the Bucegi crowds, and October is when its short conifers and grass burn copper against the limestone towers.
12 October · Vârful Ciucaș, 1,954 m
One workout, 5.9 km, 375 m of climb from the Cabana Vârful Ciucaș saddle past the Tigăile Mari pinnacles to the summit cross, then back down for the drive home.
- Distance
- 5.9 km
- Ascent
- 375 m
- Summit
- Vârful Ciucaș · 1,954 m
- Route
- Cabana Vârful Ciucaș → Tigăile Mari → Vf Ciucaș
The whole trip is one ridge. The trail leaves the cabana through low spruce, opens onto the grass-and-rock crest where the Tigăile Mari pinnacles rise like organ pipes on the left, and ends at the summit cross of Vârful Ciucaș. The photo cluster sits exactly where the ridge does - all 87 frames inside the workout window, none in the village below. A short walk, but the only walk that day, and the one Ciucaș peak that gets named on every map.
- Duration
- 1 day · day trip
- Country
- Romania (Prahova)
- Trailhead
- Cabana Vârful Ciucaș, above Cheia
- Hike signal
- 5.9 km · 375 m ascent · 1 workout
- Top elevation
- 1,954 m · Vârful Ciucaș
- Mode
- out-and-back day hike from home
- Photos
- 87 from the ridge and the Tigăile pinnacles
- Trailhead locality
- Cheia (Măneciu commune), Prahova
- Distance
- 5.9 km
- Ascent
- 375 m
- Highest elevation
- 1,954 m · Vârful Ciucaș
- Hikes logged
- 1 · Cabana Vârful Ciucaş - Tigǎile - Vf Ciucaş
- Photos this day
- 87 along the ridge