Mountains/a journey we curate for you

Seven Rila Lakes

A chain of blue mirrors high in Rila

setting

Mountains

where

Rila Mountains, Bulgaria

best season

July and August, once the ice has gone. The…

ideal for

Mountain Journey

( the feeling of it )

Seven lakes stacked up a glacial staircase, named for a tear, an eye, a kidney, a twin. From the ridge you see all of them at once.

( the story )

Seven glacial lakes stacked between 2,095 and 2,535 metres in the Rila mountains, linked by cascades and named for their shapes.

The Seven Rila Lakes lie one above the other in a glacial cirque, between 2,095 and 2,535 metres, connected by small streams that fall between them as waterfalls. Each is named for its shape: Salzata, the Tear, so clear you can see its bottom; Okoto, the Eye, oval and at 37.5 metres the deepest cirque lake in Bulgaria; Babreka, the Kidney, with the steepest shores of the group; Bliznaka, the Twin, the largest by area; Trilistnika, the Trefoil; Ribnoto, the Fish Lake, the shallowest; and Dolnoto, the Lower Lake, whose water gathers and leaves as the Dzherman river. The ridge above them takes all seven in at a glance. They freeze in October under ice up to two metres thick and do not melt before June, which makes July and August the walking months.

Untravelled · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

You don’t simply discover a room in Seven Rila Lakes. You tell us what you’re seeking — stillness, ceremony, the mountains, the table — and we curate the days around you.

( field notes, dawn to night )

A day here

before dawn

Climbing in the dark to be on the ridge when the light arrives.

sunrise

All seven below you at once, each a different blue, cloud sitting in the cirque.

midday

Down the staircase lake by lake, following the cascades between them.

afternoon

The Lower Lake, where the water gathers and leaves as the Dzherman river.

Experiences we can arrange

Guided High-Mountain Walks

Photography Journeys

Private Transfers

Hut & Lodge Stays

Sunrise Ridge Hikes

( let us curate your retreat )

There is a particular silence at two and a half thousand metres, and you carry a bit of it back down.

Go up in July. Start early.

best time to visit — July and August, once the ice has gone. The lakes freeze from October and do not clear before June.

this journey is planned with you · HAWA Club members can ask the HAWA assistant, in the seal below

( keep wandering )

More high in the mountains