The Valley of the Five Lakes is one of the most beautiful routes in the Polish Tatras

The Valley of the Five Staves is one of the most popular routes in the Polish Tatras, everyone goes here from young to old. After all, there are beautiful 5 lakes (Stavov in Polish) in the valley, and some of the highest Polish mountains rise around.

The route is perfect for one day and will make an excellent alternative to the more popular route to the Sea Eye.

The route to the five lakes

The road to the valley of the five Staves starts from the Palenica Bialczanska parking lot, where the route to the Sea Eye starts from. The route first passes along an asphalt road, and after the Mickiewicz waterfalls it goes quite steeply up a rocky path. Next, the trail passes through a pine forest, in which there are a lot of blueberries in season, and raspberries are also found.

Soon the trail goes above the forest zone and continues along the rocky slopes surrounded by pine forest. You can climb to the five staves caches along the black serpentine route going straight to the caches or along the green route, which runs next to the Siklawa waterfall and exit into the valley between the first and second lakes

How much does it cost to enter the Tatra National Park

The cost of a ticket for 1 day of stay in Tatransky Park is 8 zlotys ($2). You can also buy a 7-day ticket.

How long will it take?

The entire route is 16 km long and takes about 5 and a half hours. However, it is worth considering rest stops and lunch stops. So it is better to plan such a route for the whole day. The route is not very difficult and will suit most healthy people. It is worth noting that both pensioners and parents with very young children come up here.

What should I take with me on the road to Five lakes valley?

As in many mountains, where routes are marked and tourist destinations are organized, you will not need many things or any special knowledge.

First of all, check the weather forecast and keep in mind that it can be much colder in the mountains at altitude than at the bottom. The valley of the five Staves is located at an altitude of almost 1,700 meters above sea level. So it will be much cooler here and a strong wind may blow. You will need a fleece/sweater and a windbreaker. Even on a hot summer day, you should not be lazy and take these things with you.

Since the route runs mostly along mountain trails, you will need good sneakers, it is better if these are special trekking sneakers or even low trekking boots. Of course, you can walk the route in regular sneakers, but they will not protect your feet from injury and can slide on rocks or moss.

Since you will spend the day in the mountains, you should take care of drinking water, namely, take at least one and a half liters of water per person, if you go on a hot summer day, then it is quite possible that you will need even more water. For lunch, you can take some kind of snack with you, or you can buy food and drinks at the cache. Mountain hut in Poland is a mountain house where you can not only spend the night (book a place in advance), but also have a great meal and even drink fresh draft beer.

How to get to the parking lot on the Morskie Oko from Zakopane?

The main parking lot in front of the route to the Morskie Oko and the valley of the Five Staves is called Palenica Bialcznska and is located right on the border of the Tatra Park. A little earlier on the road, about 1 kilometer from Palenitsa Byalchanskaya, there is a parking lot on Lysa Polyana. It is worth noting that during the season, the parking lot is filled by 9 a.m., so it's worth hurrying.

If you want to get there by public transport, minibuses leave Zakopane from the bus station regularly every 10-15 minutes, it is worth focusing on buses with the inscription Morskie Oko. The journey time is about 40 minutes. The cost should be clarified with the driver as it changes quite often, even during one season there may be fluctuations.

How we went to the Valley of the Five Lakes

We have already seen the valley of the five Polish lakes passing along the Orla Perc route.

But we saw only the upper few lakes and they were all covered with ice and snow, and the hope that there was no ice on the lower lakes glowed somewhere in the soul. The idea was to capture the Eye of the Sea along with the valley of the five staves, but, as they say, it was not fate – the route that suited us in terms of passage time was closed, and the second possible route, although it was open, was three times longer, which means we would have returned home by taxi or on foot and in the dark.

So, in the morning we gathered and looked at the bright mountain sun and decided to take a sunscreen with us, which was hastily purchased yesterday, although it was too late – we were noticeably burned on Orla Perc.

The route to the valley of the five staves begins at the same place as to the Sea Eye. You can watch it right on the mini–bus - Morske Oko. 30 minutes on the way and we are at the entrance to the national park. You can immediately see that very popular routes begin here – a large parking lot, cafes, souvenir shops, horse carts that will take you to the Morske Oko Lake for a modest payment of 50 zlotys.

And we start on foot, the saddest thing about this route is that for the first 40-50 minutes you walk along an asphalt road. It seems like you can move faster than on the trail, but the pleasure is completely different.

   

After crossing the bridge and admiring the Mickiewicz Waterfall, we are at the fork – there are benches and toilets here. The road goes further to the Sea Eye, and to the left and up goes the path to the valley of Roztoki and the valley of the Five Staves.

I would like to clarify a little – the Roztoki Valley and the valley of the Five Staves are in fact one big valley. The Roztoki Valley is the lower part, from its "completion" there is a steep ascent, behind which another hanging valley is hidden – the valley of the Five Staves.

The trail does not have time to start merging with the road for ATVs, no car will be able to pass here. You may ask – "What kind of ATVs? This is a national park!" And here are the simplest service ATVs, which deliver workers, food, and necessary household tools to the cache located in the valley of the Five Staves. And that's not in the cache itself, but more on that later.

The road constantly winds along the river, sometimes crossing it on wide, sturdy bridges. Snakes similar to vipers have been seen in the grass more than once.

Blueberries have just started to produce their first leaves, there is no question of berries in May. Although judging by the number of bushes in August / September, there are very, very many berries here.

And so we found ourselves at a strange structure at first glance – an ATV is parked next to it, cables are pulled up. And this is just a cargo cable car for the delivery of goods to the cache.

A little above the cable car, there are two branching signs: the Valley of the Five Staves and the Siklawa Waterfall. But in fact, both of them lead to the Valley of the five Staves, it's just that the first one goes directly to the hiding place, and the second one leads through the Siklawa waterfall to the Big Stave. We decided to go the second way, and go down the first.

Literally 10 minutes and we are at the waterfall. It is quite full–flowing, there is a rocky area near the waterfall - so the view is just great.

   

The trail goes up from the waterfall and crosses several snowfields (most likely they are not there in June) it leads to a Large stake and, again, a branching of routes. In fact, it is from this place that the trail goes further into the valley and we would definitely walk along it if we did not know that everything is covered with snow higher up the valley, and the lakes did not even think of melting. It is also possible to climb the Orla Perc route from the Five Staves Valley in several places.

After admiring the Large Polish Camp, we went to the Front Camp and the hiding place. The trail was almost completely covered in snow, and you could fall through the rocks above your knee. People are resting near the hiding place, the sun is warming and we are sitting next to each other going to have lunch.

But the weather in the mountains is changeable and a strong cold wind was added to the bright sun, which drove us inside the hiding place. Everything is covered with wood inside, there is a dining room, toilets, showers and rooms where you can spend the night in the season, the cheapest option is 45 zlotys/person/night, as far as I remember it is either in an 8-bed room or in a 10-bed room. Breakfasts in the cache are inexpensive, but lunches are a little more expensive – it feels like a lot of people come to them at lunch.

After lunch, we begin to descend, the path going first in a straight line at the end goes down sharply, in some places stone steps are visible, but mostly it is snow. A little more descent and we come to the fork to the Siklava waterfall, and then along a good stone road down through the forest in the shade – beauty.

Before they had time to look back, they had already jumped out onto the asphalt road to the Sea Eye. And it's time to get ready to go home. And waiting for the bus was brightened up by excellent grilled sausages, which are fried in a cafe next to the parking lot ;)

P.S. And on the way home on Krupowki Street, a joyful beaver caught us and forced us to take pictures with him

   

Other tracks on the Polish Tatras: