Macocha Gorge
National Protected Landscape Area Moravsky Kras, English Moravian Karst, is one of the most important karst areas of Central Europe. The Protected Landscape Area Moravian Karst has about 92 km2.
In the area of Moravian Karst, there are more than 1100 caverns and gorges. But only 4 caves are open to the public:
1) Punkva Cave (Punkevní jeskyne) with their underground river – during the cruise you can see there at the bottom of the famous Macocha Gorge.
2) Another cave is Katerinska Cave with its unique limestone columns.
3) The Balcarka Cave is full of colorful stalactites decoration.
4) Sloupsko-Sosuvske Caves are made of huge corridors and underground gorges.
Further official information about the park you find here.
The maps of the Moravian Karst Area:
RV Places
Despite the fact that there is no one parking space specialized for campers, we can say that this national protected area is a camper-user-friendly park. On the territory of the area, there are parking lots where overnight is permitted or at least not prohibited and where the camper visitors can start their hiking or mountain biking trails.
During our visit, we visited the following parking lots:
1) Parking Lot Macocha Gorge:
It is a daily parking lot and a nice quiet place. We overnighted there as an only camper. There are no amenities, no water. The parking fee is as follows:
approximately 7 euros per 8 hours during the day.
After 4 pm there is no parking fee and no parking guard.
There are satellite coverage and a mobile signal too. We recommend this place for campers who intend to do mountain biking or hiking trails which start directly on the parking lot. We did a hiking trail and the details about that trail are here.
The coordinates for the Macocha Gorge parking lot: 49.371702, 16.731136
2) Parking Lot Sloup:
It is a parking lot for cave visitors especially. There are toilets and water too. It is free of charge. There are satellite coverage and mobile coverage too. It is a quiet place although located on the outskirts of the village. We did a mountain biking trail and the details about that trail are here.
The coordinates for parking lot Sloup: 49.411334, 16.738177
3) Parking Lot Katerinska Cave:
It is a parking lot for cave visitors especially. There are toilets and water too. It is free of charge. There are satellite coverage and mobile coverage too. It is a very quiet place located at the trailheads and next to the “House of Nature” pavilion.
The coordinates for Katerinska parking lot: 49.361139, 16.709330
4) Parking lot Balcarka:
It is a small parking lot for cave visitors especially. There are toilets and water too. It is free of charge. There are satellite coverage and mobile coverage too. It is a quiet place although located next to the road.
The coordinates for Balcarka parking lot: 49.376870, 16.757217
5) Who prefers a campground, there is a campground Relaxa near the village Sloup and we took pictures during our mountain biking trail:
The website of the campground is here:
Mountain biking and hiking trails
Visitors can explore the national protected area by hiking or mountain biking. We discovered the area in both ways.
The map of our mountain biking trail that we named Moravsky Kras Loop is shown here.
The map of our hiking trail is shown here.
Both trails are downloadable as gpx files.
The photo gallery is here and the video blogs are here.
Attractions
In addition to the amazing caves, there are other attractions in the area:
a) Křtiny Marian Temple – Jewel of Moravia is one of the oldest pilgrimage sites in the country. The present, visited by thousands of pilgrims every year, was built in the 18th century.
b) Chateau of Rajec nad Svitavou was built in Louis XVI style, captivates by its luxuriously furnished interiors of the Salm Family.
c) The Moravian Karst area is interwoven with a dense net of touristic tracks and bike trails. All tracks are well-marked; they are situated on roads, paved roads, and trails in the woods of Moravian Karst as well.
Enjoy!
