Red Lake

Red Lake, Lacul Roșu, was created when a slope of the Ucigașu mountain collapsed in 1837 and dammed a valley, flooding the spruce forest that grew there. Almost two centuries later the trunks are still standing in the shallows, silver-grey and stripped of bark, and they are the reason people photograph the lake rather than simply walk past it. The colour that gives it its name comes from iron-rich sediment carried in by the Red Creek, which stains the water and the shore a rusty tint after heavy rain. A flat path runs around the shoreline in under an hour, pedal boats and rowing boats work the middle in summer, and the small resort behind the lake has grown into a strip of guesthouses, grill stalls and craft stands. The setting is the real draw: fir slopes rise steeply on every side and the Hășmaș peaks stand behind them.

What you actually see

• The drowned forest - bleached spruce trunks standing in the shallow end.
• The shore path - an easy circuit with changing views of the stumps and peaks.
• Boat hire - rowing and pedal boats in the summer months.
• The resort strip - guesthouses, food stalls and souvenir stands behind the shore.

When to go

Summer for boats and warm walking, autumn for colour in the surrounding forest, winter for a frozen lake with the stumps locked in ice. Mornings are calmest; the surface goes glassy and the reflections are the point. Weekends are crowded because the lake is the natural stop before or after the gorges.

Honest expectations

It is small and it is busy, and the development along the shore is not attractive. The number of standing trunks has fallen over the decades as they rot and fall, so the drowned forest is thinner than in older photographs. Water levels drop in dry summers and the shallow end can look muddy. Half an hour covers it for most people.

Nearby

The Bicaz Gorges begin immediately east; Gheorgheni lies west across the pass.