Hike to Black Peak, the highest in Vitosha Nature Park

This hike to the Black Peak or Cherni Vrah is a must do when visiting Vitosha Nature Park. It’s a great day trip from Sofia into nature. You really don’t feel anymore that you’re only 30 minutes away from the capital city of Bulgaria.

DETAILS HIKE to the Black Peak

Distance: The total distance for this hike is 17 kilometers (out-and-back hike)
Elevation gain: The total incline was 925 meters
Moving time: According to Strava my moving time was 4 hours and 20 minutes (total time was 6h)
Difficulty: I would rate this as an intermediate/hard hike, most of the elevation gain is during the first 8 kilometers.
Address start: Unnamed Road,1616, Sofia (no official address, use map below)
Price: Free

Use the pinned location below so you can navigate straight to where the hike starts. 

HOW TO GET TO THE starting point?

With the car from the center of Sofia it takes you around 30 minutes. Be aware that the road is in pretty bad shape the last few kilometers . When I drove there in May 2022 repairing works were ongoing.

Another possibility is to use public transportation, ther is a bus stop right next to the trailhead. According to Google it would take about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there. This depends of course where in Sofia you get on the public transportation.

HIKING MAP AND GPX-FILE

Generally speaking for all hikes, the easiest way is to download a GPX file that you can view on a gps device, a smartphone or smartwatch. It will tell you step-by-step how to walk. It also includes an elevation profile of the hike which can help you to decide if this hike is for you or not.

The route is pretty well marked, if you follow the white/blue markers and the yellow signs that point to Cherni Vrah, you should be alright. Mostly you find the signs written in both cyrillic and latin. Me personally I like to have a GPX file as well. It serves great as a plan B and you have an idea of the remaining distance and altitude.

Download the GPX file right here: Hike-from-Moreni-to-Black-Peak.gpx

Golden Bridges or Zlatnite Mostove

Almost immediately you will notice a huge pile of boulders on your left hand side. Underneath you can hear the water running from the river Vladayska Reka. This location is also called the stone river. When I did this hike to the Black Peak I had no idea about this phenomena but apparently it’s quite a huge tourist attraction around Sofia. For me it looked like a major landslide happened a few thousand or even millions of years ago and until now the rounded rocks remain here. Because of The stone river is up to 150 meter wide and has a length of about 2,2 kilometers. Starting at an altitude of 1800m the stone river runs until 1400m.

Vitosha Nature Park

Vitosha Nature Park is is one of the first of its kind in Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula. In 1936 a small portion was declared protected area but later on the whole Vitosha mountain surface became part of the nature park. When walking on Vitosha Boulevard in the center of Sofia you can see the huge dome like mountain in the distance.

In my opinion the proximity of Vitosha Nature Park makes Sofia a great tourist destination. You could easily include some nature exploration into your city trip.

Escaping Sofia to get into nature

Usually when I travel I try to avoid the bigger cities because it’s just not really my thing. As this trip to Bulgaria marks the first country of my full time travels I thought I’d really take my time to explore the country and start with the capital city. Also I thought it could be a great opportunity to meet people to possible hang out with on the rest of my trip.

Now, in all honesty, after one full day in Sofia I already felt the need to get away from the city and explore some nature. Luckily this wasn’t that hard as Vitosha Nature Park is just 20 minutes from the center by car.

As I spotted Vitosha mountain from the city center I started thinking how cool it would be to be on the top looking at the city center instead of the other way around. Soon enough I realized there are several routes that lead to Cherni Vrah or Black Peak in English, mostly it is recommended to start fromn Aleko hut which is the main winter and summer tourist center in the area. I found an alternative hike to the Black Peak which is a bit longer but also less popular. Less people? That sounded great in my opinion!

Another great hike just outside Sofia is this one: HIKE TO BOYANA WATERFALL IN VITOSHA NATURE PARK

MY EXPERIENCE HIKING to the Black Peak

As usual I started of way too late but I figured I have a head torch and the sunset is only around 21h30 so I should be alright. Around 1PM I left Sofia and around 1h45 PM I started hiking.

Pretty soon I noticed that there were actually quite some people in the area but that was only to visit the stone rivers ‘Golden Bridges’, about 10 minutes into the hike I didn’t see anyone anymore. In fact during the whole hike I saw 5 other people, acceptable to me 😉

The first 3 kilometers are pretty much all the time in dense pine forests. In this section you will find some water sources and there’s also a hut at around 2 kilometers called Kumata hut which where supposedly you can eat or drink something. To me it looked closed but on the way back I saw a lady there so maybe it was open after all.

On the map I used there were several water sources shown but in reality once you leave the forest at around 1750 meters above sea level pretty much all the water sources were dry so I would recommend to refill your bottle whenever you see a working water fountain. I brought enough water so I didn’t really have an issue there.

Once you find yourself beyond the tree line you will reach a plain where there is an abandoned building and an old shelter. The building might’ve been part of an old ski lift installation which you can see (and need to follow) on the hill.

Once you reach the end of the old cable car station on top of the hill there’s a kind-of-flat part of about 1 kilometer, you will notice the black/yellow winter markings that you need to follow.

On top of the that hill there was also a tiny cabin which I’m curious about what it was. If you have any idea let me know!

Once you start following the winter markings you can already see the Black Peak in front of you. It doesn’t look that far but in reality it’s about 2 more kilometers away. 2 very steep kilometers!

During these last 2 kilometers there was another shelter that you could use if necessary. Also there were a few patches of snow left when I did this hike to the Black Peak (end of May). With a small detour I went around these patches, so no worries.

About 8 kilometers into this hike you reach the peak of Vitosha mountain, Cherni Vrah or Black Peak, congratulations, you made it! It took me about 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach the peak.

On the peak itself there is a weather station and a cabin that can be used as shelter (I think). There are a few nice spots to sit on to have a packed lunch and enjoy the views. There’s also a beautiful view over Sofia from there. Finally the tables had turned and I was looking at the center of Sofia instead of at the face of the Vitosha mountain.

There are some other routes to return to civilization but as my car was parked at the Golden Bridges I returned the same way I came.

Let me know in the comments or through my Instagram if you enjoyed this hike!