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Bulgarian mountains offer many pportunities for eco-tourism and the industry is in its infancy as Bulgaria concentrates on the economic recovery from the fall of communism and the adoption of a market economy.
Bulgarian Pirin Mountains 
Nestling in the very southwestern corner of the country, the Pirin Mountains are famed throughout Bulgaria for their lakes and mineral springs, set amongst dramatic alpine cirques and surrounded by more than mountain peaks. The Pirin National Park at 40,000 hectares is the largest Bulgarian park and is listed by UNESCO because  of rare natural features such as tufa towers, the diversity of flora and fauna and the number of rare species, including wild bears.
Though less well known to outsiders for its skiing, Pirin is internationally regarded for its excellent walking trails centred on its main resort Bansko, but also from Popina Luka north of Sandanski in the heart of the range. A cross-range trip can take up to 10 days but shorter routes are also marked.
Bulgarian Rila Mountains 
South of Sofia, is the main Bulgarian playground, with excellent hiking in summer and the best-known resorts for winter sports. Rila is a landscape shaped by glacial erosion. Crowned by Mount Musala, the highest peak in the Balkans and the 6th highest in Europe, this Bulgarian region offers landscapes from evergreen forests to alpine pastures and lakes; the upper elevations offer archetypal mountainscapes, many of which are protected by the 27,000-hectare Rila National Park. The summer hiking trails are
well marked but some of them are
taxing for beginners because of their
 steep inclines. For good short trails -
easy routes not too far from sources of
refreshment - try Borovets (using the
winter ski slopes routes) or the smaller
resort of Maliovitsa.
A network of routes can also be found
around the famed Rila Monastery.
Bulgarian Rodopi Mountains
Forming Bulgaria's natural boundary with Greece to the south, the Rodopi Mountains lie in the heartland of the region known in antiquity as Thrace. The name is said by some to come from the pagan goddess Rhodope, though others say the range may be named from the Slavic words ruda and ropa meaning ore and pit, because mining has been an industry here since the Iron Age.
 This Bulgarian range is generally lower in altitude than the Pirin or Rila ranges but is blanketed with expansive virgin pine forests in the north and the karst and granite rocks have led to the formation of vast cave complexes and gorges.
The Bulgarian Rodopi see mild but snowy winters and warm but not hot summers, a climate that combines with the terrain to offer superb hiking and skiing, anchored by the internationally known resort of Pamporovo. It's also the area to go caving, spelunking or potholing, and with rock formations such as Choudnite Mostove (Wonderful Bridges) it's good for climbing, too.
Bulgarian Stara Planina Mountains
The Stara Planina range (also known as the Balkan Mountain range) divides Bulgaria, running east-west through the middle of the country from the Serbian border to the Black Sea. The range is the most ancient in the country: in fact its name is derived from a phrase meaning old mountain. The range has been worn to little more than hills by millennia of erosion, but its highest peak, Mount Botev, rises to 2,376m and it has severalpeaks over 2,000m lying mostly in the western section.
The Stara Planina are the windiest Bulgarian mountains, often forming the dividing line between two weather systems; this causes dangerous rushes of air through the mountain passes. Unusually, rainfall is at its highest in June, with least rain falling in February.
It's less easy to get away from it all here, especially in the central section. The attraction is more in the hidden monasteries, traditional lifestyles and the generally more gentle gradients. However, there are two centres of excellence. The dramatic Vratsa and Iskur gorges in the far west of the range (north of Sofia) are much loved by mountain and free climbers and there are some great hiking trails cutting through the peaks. Vrachanski Balkan National Park was created in this same region (west of Vratsa) in the late 1980s to protect the karst landscape and 28,000 hectares of forested mountainscape, boasting over 700 species of flora and numerous natural caves.
Hiking possibilities are most comprehensive from the west, though there is a 650km marked route (the longest single Bulgarian route) along the whole of the Stara Planina ridge (from Mount Kom to Cap Emine on the Black Sea), with regularly sited chalets.
Bulgarian Bear Sanctuary
There's been a tradition of dancing bears in the Balkans since the Middle Ages but sensibilities about performing animals have changed even here, and in 2002 the government made it illegal to 'exhibit' a bear.
Several owners came forward to hand in animals which were of no economic use and with the help of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, a 12-hectare sanctuary has been set up close to Belitsa in the Rila Mountains to rehabilitate and protect these unfortunate Bulgarian animals. |
