Calimani National Park

Calimani National Park, the pride of the country’s northern region, is known for its vast spruce and Swiss pine (a glacial relict tree) forests, rocks with scattered juniper and rhododendron bushes, pastures with gentians or sweet violets, tormentils or bellflowers, large size herbivores and carnivores such as the bear, the lynx and the wolf.

Besides the usual mountain trekking trails, a few interactive interpretation trails, easy accessible for families with children, can be found here. For information and guided tours in Calimani National Park, we recommend visiting Calimani National Park Visitor’s Centre in 54C, Saru Dornei.

The 12 Apostles Geological and Landscape Reserve 

There are several zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, ”carved” by weather throughout the centuries, on the mountain ridge going down from Calimani over Tamau and Pietrele Rosii towards Lucaciu peak and Vatra Dornei town. Legends and stories were born in the course of time around the rocks bearing peculiar names, such as “The Old Man”, “The General”, “Nefertiti” etc., waiting to be discovered by the curious traveller.

Zugreni Gorges Nature Reserve

Zugreni Gorges Nature Reserve is situated 20 km from Vatra Dornei town, down Bistrita river, at 740 m altitude, stretching vertically towards Pietrosul Bistritei peak. The area is very picturesque due to the wilderness of the rocks. The reserve’s flora is specific to rocky areas, edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinum) being found here in Moldova’s lowest natural resort. The presence of Andryalla levitomentosa endemism on the inaccessible mountain rocks is to be noticed.

The Large Peat Bog Scientific Reserve – Poiana Stampei

The Large Peat Bog Scientific Reserve – Poiana Stampei is the largest natural peat reserve in our country, being an oligotrophic bog, looking like a Siberian type ”tundra”. This peat bog, declared a Nature Monument in 1955, is crossed by a 990 m long wooden footbridge, which facilitates the visit of the reserve because the hygroscopic peat moss layer always oozes water. The scientific importance of the reserve is related to the acidity of the moss layers, which allowed the unaltered preservation of the pollen set on the peat layers throughout the decades. A small carnivorous plant adapted to the acid life of the peat bog, the round-leaved sundew, can be also found here.

Saru Dornei Peat Bog Nature Reserve

Saru Dornei Peat Bog Nature Reserve is found near the road going to Gura Haitii, before entering Saru Dornei village – on the way to Calimani mountains. It is a peculiar looking oligotrophic bog. Everywhere among the coniferous tree clusters there are little Sphagnum moss mounds, ” small chemical factories”, which produce the soil called peat by decomposing. Another special plant can be also admired here, the hare’s-tail cotton grass, specific to the peat bogs in Scandinavia, Scotland and Ireland, but rare in our country. The peat bog can be visited on an interpretation trail called ” The Peat Bog World under the Magnifying Glass”, where the visitors will find out some well-kept secrets of this special place.

Nature Reserve

Natural areas where a species or an important environment is protected. Recreational, educational and research activities are allowed.

Natural Park

Natural areas where species and their environment, typical for Romania’s nature, with minimum human intervention, are protected.

Recreational, educational, scientific research, traditional activities and the construction of minimum tourism infrastructure (trails and mountain shelters) are allowed.

National Park

Natural areas where the landscape and the local character, also important due to the human local traditional activities, are protected.

Natural Monuments

Natural monuments are species or natural features, more or less rare, protected within the reserves or outside them. Their management target is to preserve them intact, therefore, depending on their vulnerability degree, resulting in restricted or forbidden access to visitors.

Natura 2000 Site

Natural areas where species and their environment of European importance are protected. They all depend on human existence and their traditional way of living. 

Recreational and educational activities, construction of tourism infrastructure (trails, huts and mountain shelters), sustainable human activities are allowed.