Ceský ráj (Czech Paradise) Rock Cities

October 2021 - the Bohemian Paradise or the Saxonian Swiss we had visited a few times before and fell in love. It definitely deserves a space on the WHS list. Now we had the chance to visit the nearby Czech paradise as well.

We arrived late in Turnov and had some knedliki before we drove into the nationalpark and stayed overnight on a parking lot in our camper. As we were getting ready to sleep someone knocked at our door and let us know that there will be some filming early in the morning, so we would have to leave by then, at least that’s what I understood after our Polish-Czech conversation. He then sat down with a candle and was guarding the requisites, a bit spooky. 
We changed parking lots early in the morning and made a hike through some of the most beautiful structures and gorges around Mariánská vyhlídka with the fog still hanging over the rocks. After this nice morning hike we continued to visit some famous horses and stables.

Český Ráj (Bohemian Paradise) is the Czech classics among protected landscapes and it is used mostly and preferably for recreation, leisure time, and for rock climbing sports. The protected landscape area was established in 1955 as the first and thus the oldest one in former Czechoslovakia. Before the protection, it has been inhabited and used by humans for thousands years already. The proposed TWHS consists of the series of impressive sandstone formations called “rock cities”, thus, it is not surprising it has been already included to the list of UNESCO geoparks (since 2005).

Český Ráj is not alone among the sandstone rock cities in the central Europe. There are plenty of them, for example: the Broumov area, Bohemian-Saxonian Switzerland with surrounding Elbe sandstones, several areas in Bavaria (Frankische Schweiz) and Poland.

It should not be definitely natural WHS (only exceptional natural quality is its geology, but still it is of national importance). I can only ironically comment it that Český Ráj is the classical area of recreation for poor and middle classes, and it might be included to the serial nomination with TWHS Nice and Cote d`Azur, as also classical touristy area, but for aristocracy and rich people.

Moreover, we have another hot candidate for the inscription as a natural site in Czechia – beech forests of nearby Jizerske hory Mountains!

I visited the area (Hrubá Skála, Prachovské Skály, Malá Skála) for recreation several times, in most cases as a kid with my parents, and it …

Central Europe seems to offer nice autumn color viewings, and I thought I'd take an advantage of that and go to visit Cesky Raj (Czech Paradise) in Czechia in early November.

Cesky Raj is actually a very large area with varied natural beauties, but the nomination has to do with the several Rock Cities within the area.

My quick research before the trip revealed that out of the 10 proposed Rock Cities for inclusion, 2 are the main ones: Hruba Skala and Prachovské Skály, and the former is mainly for rock climbers and the latter is for tourists.

Although I visited both and also the Trosky Castle ruin, the main attraction of Cesky Raj, located between the two Rock Cities, I explored Prachovské Skály more in detail by hiking. Prachovské Skály is supposed to be the oldest nature protection area in Czechia.

There are 2 recommended hiking routes at Prachovské Skály, the Yellow Loop and the Green Loop. The former is only 1.5 km long with 2 lookouts and the latter is 3.5 km long with 8 lookouts. So I took the latter. (But this decision required a major change in my trip plan, that is, one more overnight stay at the pension in the village of Libun.) I would highly recommend this Green Loop: https://www.prachovskeskaly.com/en/tourism

I started hiking from the train station of Jinolice, went to the trail head of the Green Loop and ended hiking at the train station of Libun, which was near the pension I stayed …