Ružovský vrch

Ružovský vrch as seen from above Huntírov © Ricky Yates

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday 31^st May, after I had been successfully connected to the internet, I went for a walk in the hills behind Huntírov, in part to find the exact location of the communication mast from which my wireless signal is obtained. But as I looked northwards, beyond Stará Oleška, I became fascinated by this towering conical mountain.

A perusal of my walking map of the area, revealed it as Ružovský vrch, (Rosenberg auf Deutsch), 619m high. My map also indicated that there was a waymarked path to the summit which then descended down the other side. An attitude that dates from my teenage years came to the fore. If there is a mountain there, it needs to be climbed 😉 So two days later, that is exactly what I did.

Ružovský vrch as seen from above Huntírov, aided by my camera’s zoom function © Ricky Yates

Ružovský vrch as seen from above Srbská Kamenice © Ricky Yates

A closer view from above Srbská Kamenice © Ricky Yates

Looking back, with the path alongside the edge of the field © Ricky Yates

On the afternoon of Friday 2^nd June, I drove about five kilometres to the village of Srbská Kamenice. Here I parked the car, and set off up the yellow waymarked route. This initially passed through grassland with patches of woodland.

The path passing through deciduous forest © Ricky Yates

But soon afterwards, it entered the almost virgin deciduous forest that covers the mountain slopes.

Yellow waymark arrow © Ricky Yates

The route was well waymarked, but for once, the yellow arrow was not leading to Santiago de Compostela 🙂

Trilingual national park sign © Ricky Yates

Ružovský vrch forms the southernmost extremity of the Czech/Bohemian Switzerland National Park which stretches from here to the Czech – German border. It is relatively rare to see a notice in English – normally signs are only in Czech and German in this part of the world.

Cross on the summit of Ružovský vrch © Ricky Yates

I eventually reached the summit which is marked by this large wooden cross.

Limited view from the summit of Ružovský vrch © Ricky Yates

But because of the tree cover, the views are somewhat limited. There was once a viewing tower here but it was damaged by fire in the 1930s and never replaced. However, when beginning the somewhat steep decent on the far side of the mountain, I did get this view, looking towards the Czech – German border.

View looking north towards the Czech – German border © Ricky Yates