Rodna Mountains National Park

Rodna Mountains National Park covers the central part of the Rodna Mountains, the highest massif in the Eastern Carpathians, which reaches 2,303 m at Pietrosu Peak. In Maramureș it includes land belonging to the town of Borșa and the communes of Moisei and Săcel, and in Bistrița-Năsăud land of the communes of Maieru, Parva, Rebrișoara, Rodna, Romuli, Șanț and Telciu and the town of Sângeorz-Băi. The park's official website gives its area as 47,202 ha. The park overlaps the Rodna Mountains Natura 2000 site, both as a site of community importance and as a special protection area for birds. Its oldest core is the Pietrosu Mare scientific reserve, established in 1932 and designated in 1979, over 3,300 ha, as a biosphere reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere programme. The national park was set up by Order no. 7/1990 of the Ministry of Waters, Forests and Environmental Protection, declared a protected area by Law no. 5/2000, and given its current boundaries in 2002. Within it lie the reserves of Piatra Rea, Ineu-Lala, the narcissus meadow on the Saca massif, Izvorul Bătrâna, Izvoarele Mihăiesei, the Valea Cobășelului cave, the Izvorul Tăușoarelor cave, and the cave and karst spring of Izvorul Albastru al Izei. The massif is a horst of crystalline schists, bounded by the Dragoș Vodă fault to the north and the Rodna fault to the south, with Neogene volcanic rocks on its southern side. Of all the Eastern Carpathians, the Rodna Mountains preserve the clearest traces of Quaternary glaciers, with glacial cirques such as Ineu-Lala, Negoiescu, Iezer, Buhăescu and Izvorul Cailor, glacial lakes and waterfalls, among them the Cascada Cailor at the entrance from Borșa. The flora includes edelweiss, the Carpathian rhododendron (Rhododendron kotschyi), Transylvanian liverwort (Hepatica transsilvanica) and Porcius's saw-wort (Saussurea porcii), a Rodna endemic rediscovered more than a century after its last collection in 1902. Mammals include chamois, marmot, brown bear, lynx and otter, and birds include the golden eagle, western capercaillie and black grouse. On the Maramureș side, marked trails start from Borșa and from the Borșa Tourist Complex.