One of the highlights of a trip in Montenegro which is already full of highlights has been rafting down the Tara River. With its crystal clear turquoise spring-fed waters, the Tara is easily the most beautiful river I’ve ever seen. See more photos below! Continue reading “Rafting the Tara”
The setting sun illuminates a field of wildflowers on a high mountain pass, with Bobotov Kuk towering behind.
Durmitor National Park is certainly the most famous and beloved mountain range in Montenegro. The mountains here aren’t the biggest or baddest ever, but they have an undeniably wonderful and unique character, like a combination of the rugged might of the Alps with the wild solitude of the Colorado Rockies. They seem to have a dash of everything I love most in mountains — jagged spires, sculpted peaks, vast green meadows, fields of wildflowers, misty forests, emerald lakes, and the freedom to explore it all in relative solitude. We spent four amazing days last week trekking through the heart of these fantastic mountains.
Panoramic view of Bobotov Kuk (2522 m / 8274 ft) and the Durmitor range, as seen from the summit of Bandijerna.
This was actually my second time visiting Durmitor; I was here by myself back in June of 2004. At that time it was the off season, the mountains were still covered in snowpack, and I was the only tourist in Zabljak, the little town situated at the base of the Durmitor mountains. There was only one restaurant open then, where I ate every evening with some Serbian army guys I met. It rained six days straight and when it finally stopped I used all my pent up energy to walk from town to the summit of Bobotov Kuk (the highest peak) and back in one day, with snowpack and all. Those army guys said it was impossible and didn’t believe me until I showed them the summit photos on my camera!
Eleven years later, in the height of summer season, the town of Zabljak is hopping. There’s people everywhere, lots of restaurants and bars, probably twice as many houses around here, and a general vibrant vibe that was completely absent during my previous visit. But despite the bustle in town, once we hiked past the popular Crno Jezero lake near the park entrance, the crowds quickly thinned. By the time we reached our first campsite we hadn’t seen anybody for hours. This range is small but there’s still plenty of opportunity to get away.
Lots more photos below! Continue reading “Durmitor Loop”
Sunset light on Maglic and nearby mountains, as seen at Trnovacko Lake, in Montenegro just across the border from Bosnia.
For the first mountain adventure of our Bosnia/Montenegro trip, Claudia and I went backpacking for two nights at Trnovacko Lake along the border of Bosnia and Montenegro. The lake itself is located on the Montenegro side of the border, but is only accessible via Sutjeska National Park on the Bosnian side. Sure enough, while we were camped there a warden came by to check our passports, which is kind of a novel thing to have happen while backpacking!
A foggy morning at Trnovacko Jezero.
A hiker enjoys the view above Trnovacko Jezero, in Montenegro not far from the border of Bosnia.
The heart-shaped, emerald-colored Trnovacko Lake provides a great base camp for hiking up Maglic (pronounced Mag-leech), the highest mountain of Bosnia — which we did, of course. From the summit we had a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains and canyons, including the neighboring Durmitor mountains to the south (our next destination).
We have been in Sarajevo (the capitol city of Bosnia & Herzegovina) during the last few days, sleeping off our jet lag and strolling around this fascinating city. See more snapshots taken during our leisurely wanderings below. Continue reading “Snapshots from Sarajevo”
Evening over the town of Kotor and the Boka Kotorska, a fjord off the Adriatic Sea, Montenegro.
Tomorrow we fly to Sarajevo for a month of traveling through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia! I have visited this beautiful region before back in 2004, and have longed to return ever since. Our rough plan is to rent a car in Sarajevo and head south into Montenegro where we will hike and backpack in various mountain ranges down through the rugged chain of the Dinaric Alps. Perhaps we will also have a chance to raft down the Tara River, a turquoise river that cuts through the deepest canyon in Europe. Eventually we’ll work our way back up along the coast and through Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, before heading up to Germany for my sister-in-law’s wedding!
I’ll probably update the blog while I’m away, but in the meantime check out my photos from my previous travels in Montenegro and Croatia back in 2004.
Merry Christmas!
The moon shines above the clouds.
Here are a couple more photos from our night and morning on the summit of Zugspitze (2962m), Germany’s tallest mountain, back in August 2013. See all the photos and read more about our climb up Zugspitze here.
Morning on the summit of Zugspitze.
Cimon della Pala is revealed glowing in evening light as low clouds thin out from Passo Rolle.
In the last few months I’ve been steadily working on reorganizing my photo archives in Lightroom, and during the process I’ve unearthed quite a few gems that I had overlooked during the initial selection process. So in the next few days and weeks I’ll be sharing many of these finds.
Cimon della Pala rises over Passo Rolle high above the town of San Martino di Castrozza – December.
This first batch comes from December of 2010 when I spent a week in the small town of San Martino di Castrozza in the Italian Dolomites. Every day I’d drive my rental car up the winding road to Passo Rolle to ski around looking for a variety of photo angles of the immense jagged spire of Cimon della Pala – one of the most striking peaks in a region full of striking peaks.
A December snowstorm envelopes the mountains around Cimon della Pala.
Check out more of my photos from the Dolomites here.
Dusk reflection of Pic du Midi d’Ossau in Lac Gentau near the Refuge d’Ayous in the Pyrenees – September.
I have just updated my trip report from our trek in the Pyrenees with newly processed photos. This was our final trek of our European travels this last summer, and thus the last new photos I have to post from Europe.
Our trek through the Pyrenees was cut short by an unfortunate injury, and so I hope to return someday to see many parts of the range that we missed. And concerning the Alps and Europe in general, there are so many mountains there to see I feel like we only scratched the surface during our two months of trekking there. We could spend many many summers there before really getting a solid grasp on that mighty mountain range, and hopefully we’ll get the chance to do so in the future.
Here’s a few photos of sunset and sunrise from our night atop the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. See the complete trip report here, including photos from the 7,000+ vertical foot hike and klettersteig climb of the Höllental route.
Sunset light as seen from the summit of Zugspitze (2962m).
Sunset light on a rugged ridge of Zugspitze, high above the clouds.
Sunrise on the top of Zugspitze (2962m), the highest mountain in Germany.
