Suchá Belá Gorge

Suchá Belá – the most visited gorge in Slovak Paradise

With its large number of ladders, footbridges, iron steps and other technical aids, the ascent through Suchá Belá Gorge is highly attractive and very popular. The gorge is easily reached from the parking area and bus stop in Podlesok, so in the summer season it can be literally packed with hikers. Queues often form below ladders and more difficult sections, and you may have to wait there for several dozen minutes. If you want to enjoy a bit more of the atmosphere of Suchá Belá, set out at first light. Better still, come outside the main season, for example in spring, when there is more water and the waterfalls and cascades are at their best—and you may well have the place almost to yourself.

Ascent through Suchá Belá Gorge

The hike begins at the Podlesok (545 m) trail junction opposite the reception of the campsite of the same name. The green trail leads you across a short meadow to the forest, where the entrance to Suchá Belá Gorge is hidden. Wooden steps descend into the streambed, which you follow for almost the entire climb. At first the route is easy, and you only occasionally come across a short footbridge.

Misové Waterfalls

You reach the first ladders below the Misové Waterfalls. Once you climb the first one, you quickly find out it is not over yet: the iron steps take you into a narrow section with more cascades of the Misové Waterfalls, and you still have to climb two more ladders linked by a footbridge. The whole waterfall consists of two main drops with several smaller cascades and is nearly 30 metres high in total. These are probably the most demanding obstacles you have to overcome in Suchá Belá.

Okienkový Waterfall

The route continues over more footbridges and iron steps, and before long you have to squeeze through a very narrow crack in the rock, which brings you directly below the Okienkový Waterfall. It has two main drops and is about 15 metres high altogether. You climb alongside it on a fairly long ladder, and at the end pass through a small rock window that gave the waterfall its name.

Korytový Waterfall and the end of Suchá Belá Gorge

More footbridges lead you below the Korytový Waterfall, which you bypass on iron steps fixed to the rock on the right, then climb beside the upper drop on a short ladder. Not far beyond the waterfall, the valley starts to open out until the rock walls finally fall behind you. Through a beech forest you ascend to a spring, and a little farther on you join an asphalt forest road. Turn left and after a few steps you can rest on benches under a shelter at the Suchá Belá, záver (959 m) trail junction.

Descent to Podlesok

From the junction, follow the yellow trail along a wide forest track to pod Vtáčím hrbom (915 m), then continue straight on along the red trail. The path descends gently through the forest and after about two kilometres brings you to another spring. A level stretch follows, and at the next bend the marked trail turns right onto a footpath and descends to a junction of forest tracks at nad Podleskom (705 m). Leave the track once again to the right on a path dropping straight downhill, crossing it several more times before you emerge from the forest just above Podlesok. All that remains is to cross the small bridge over the stream and you are back at the Podlesok (545 m) trail junction.

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Useful info

Transport

By car: Take the D1 motorway past Poprad, exit at junction 341, and continue toward Spišský Štvrtok and Hrabušice. Drive through Hrabušice and about a kilometre later turn left to the paid Podlesok car park. By train and bus: Take the train to Poprad, then a local train to Vydrník. From there, buses run to Hrabušice, and in the summer season they continue as far as Podlesok.

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Itinerary

Podlesok Suchá Belá, záver (2:10) pod Vtáčím hrbom (2:40) nad Podleskom (3:25) Podlesok (3:50)

Water and refreshments along the way

Podlesok, spring before the Suchá Belá, záver junction, spring before the nad Podleskom junction

Alternatives

If you want to extend the hike, head over to Kláštorisko. The broad meadows offer beautiful views of the High Tatras, there is a mountain hut here, and the gradually restored ruins of a Carthusian monastery. From the Pod Vtáčím hrbom junction, turn right onto the red trail toward Kláštorisko, chata (0:30). For the descent, you can take the green trail to above the Hrdlo Hornádu junction (1:30) and near the Turistický raj campsite join the blue trail back to Podlesok (2:00).