It was late spring, at the end of a rainy May. In other words, it was the perfect time for a waterfall hike, when the melting snow was feeding the rivers and the recent rains had added even more water. We found a break in the weather – a day with no rain in the forecast – and headed to Rila Skakavitsa Waterfall – high, beautiful and very powerful.
Rila Skakavitsa waterfall is the highest waterfall in the Rila Mountains. Its waters descend from a height of over 70 meters. It is located at an altitude of 1750 meters above sea level. The area around it is extremely picturesque.
What’s even better is that all this natural beauty is not difficult to reach. The hike to the waterfall is relatively short and straightforward, with no major elevation gain, and the trail is well marked and clearly signposted.
Here are the details for visiting the Rila Skakavitsa waterfall that is a wonderful day trip from Sofia.
How to get to the Rila Skakavitsa waterfall
The starting point for the waterfall is the Zeleni Preslap area. It is located after Panichishte, about 96 km from Sofia, which takes about an hour and a half of driving.
The area can be reached by a narrow asphalt road. Once you arrive in Panichishte, follow the signs towards the lower lift station. Just before reaching it, turn right towards Zeleni Preslap – there is a sign marking the turn.
Zeleni Preslap has a pleasant rest area and a large, flat parking lot, where several hiking trails begin, including the one to Rila Skakavitsa Waterfall. The route passes by Skakavitsa Hut, so at the beginning of the hike, simply follow the signs for the hut.
The route to the Rila Skakavitsa waterfall
As I mentioned, the trail is very well marked and indicated with signposts, which shows that it is well maintained. For the Skakavitsa hut, follow the red markings. The trail to the hut, and then to the waterfall, is relatively easy to walk, because there are no large elevation changes or dangerous places to cross. At the several places where the trail crosses the streams, there are wooden bridges.
The only obstacles in places are the fallen trees, typical for this time of year, as well as the mud fed by the flowing streams. But despite these obstacles, there are no impassable places on the trail.
The entire distance from the parking lot to the Rila Skakavitsa waterfall can be covered in an hour and a half. As always, this is an approximate time and depends on the speed of walking and the breaks that are taken during the hike.
This distance can be roughly divided into two stages:
- stage 1: from the parking lot to the Skakavitsa hut – about an hour and a half;
- stage 2: from the hut to the waterfall – about half an hour.
Stage 1: from the parking lot to the Skakavitsa hut
As I mentioned, the hike from the parking lot to Skakavitsa Hut takes about an hour at a normal to slightly brisk pace. However, it’s not easy to keep that pace all the way, and there’s a good reason for it – the trail passes several beautiful waterfalls just a little to the left. It’s hard not to stop and admire them along the way!
More precisely, the route begins as a dirt road. After about 20 minutes of walking, you need to turn right towards Skakavitsa Hut. From here, the trail continues through the forest, and about ten minutes later, you’ll start hearing the sound of the waterfalls on the Skakavitsa River.
We turned left to get a closer look, take some photos, and, inevitably, get a little wet. At this point, the Skakavitsa River is particularly powerful, rushing over several rocky drops and forming two or three impressive, full-flowing waterfalls that send cool spray into the air.
If you stick closely to the main trail, you can easily miss these waterfalls. The short detour along the river takes only about 10 minutes and is well worth it.
We devoted quite a bit of time to these waterfalls. Then we rejoined the trail and headed towards the hut. There, after the waterfalls, was the most difficult section – difficult due to the greater elevation gain and the fallen trees that had to be bypassed. This last section to the hut took us about 20 minutes.
The Skakavitsa hut is located in a very beautiful place, surrounded almost everywhere by high cliffs. There are quite nice-looking places to relax and eat around it. The hut has obviously been renovated recently.
There, at the Skakavitsa hut, we rested a bit with tea and coffee and headed towards the Rila Skakavitsa waterfall. By the way, the tea was free at that very time.
Stage 2: from the Skakavitsa hut to the foot of the Rila Skakavitsa waterfall
After the hut, the trail continues for a short time in a grove along the left bank of the Skakavitsa river, and after the grove, the landscape becomes typically high-mountain: with stone scree, coniferous trees, crocuses, high cliffs.
During our visit, smaller and larger waterfalls flowed from many places. It was spring after all. Shortly after the grove, we saw it too – the impressive Rila Skakavitsa waterfall. Well, we saw a very small part of it, but the picture was promising.
So, walking along the path, in places jumping over various streams and enjoying the Rila beauties, in about half an hour we reached the foot of the waterfall. Shortly before the waterfall, we had to pass through a section, perhaps a meadow, which was still covered with snow. This slowed us down a bit, since we were wearing summer shoes and we were slipping a lot on the snow.
I haven’t counted the minutes spent at the foot of the Rila Skakavitsa waterfall. They just passed by unnoticed. Up close, the waterfall was even more beautiful and impressive … and wet 🙂 , and cool. The high rocks that surrounded it were also impressive. A great view.
However, time was flying, and eventually we had to head back. We followed the same route we had taken on the way up, stopping once again at the hut – this time for a delicious bowl of bean soup and some salad. Refreshed and full of new energy, we set off on foot towards the car, taking with us plenty of wonderful impressions from the day.
Final thoughts
Rila Skakavitsa Waterfall is truly impressive, and the surrounding landscape makes it even more spectacular, with towering rocks, scree slopes, and dense coniferous forests. The hike to the waterfall is also relatively easy and not too long. There are no major elevation changes, the trail is very well marked, and the one-way hike from the parking lot, via Skakavitsa Hut, takes about an hour and a half.
Other notable places nearby are the well-known and picturesque Seven Rila Lakes. Also, not far from Separeva Banya is another Rila waterfall – Goritsa.
