The quaint, amazing Carpathian village of Vorokhta became famous among tourists for many reasons, but the main one was, is and will be its proximity to one of the most popular sights of Ukraine, the highest point of the Ukrainian Carpathians — Mount Hoverla. It is in Vorokhta that the most famous tourist trail to the highest mountain in the country starts.
Mount Hoverla rushes up to 2061 meters, piercing the clouds with its sharp peak. It belongs to one of the most beautiful ranges of the Ukrainian Carpathians — Chernogorsky and is part of Carpathian National Nature Park. The picturesque mountain, resembling an Egyptian pyramid with its shape, is located on the border of Ivano-Frankivsk and Transcarpathian regions only 17 km from the border with Romania.
The name «Hoverla» from the Hungarian language translates as «snow mountain», and the history of its origin is connected with a legend. According to this legend, once, having heard about the nameless high mountain, one Magyar count decided to conquer it. The stranger gathered a group and set out to conquer the peak, not knowing either about its bad temper or the fact that it had been visited by local shepherds more than once. During the ascent, a terrible snowstorm broke out, as a result of which most of the Count’s party perished, and the survivors, returning from the mountain, fearfully repeated one thing: «Hoverla, Hoverla…», which was translated from their language as «Snow Mountain».
This legend associated with Hoverla is only one of many. Among the legends that shroud this peak, there is one about how it came to be — the most romantic and tragic one.
In time immemorial, when magic still existed on earth, a girl named Hoverla and a shepherd named Prut fell in love with each other. But Prut did not know that Hoverla was the daughter of the king of the mountains, and that her father, having learned about their love, would act in the most cruel way. The angry king turned his daughter into a mountain to hide her from her lover. But one of the local sorcerers told Prut what her father had done to Hoverla and how she could be saved. «Climb to the very top of the mountain today before dawn, and you will find your beloved again,» the sorcerer said. Prut was in a hurry, rushing as hard as he could to the top of the high mountain, but the dawn was already dawning, and he had no time to run to the right place. Then Prut sat down and cried, as he cries for his beloved to this day, having turned into a river on its slopes.
This beautiful legend is a romantic story about the beautiful landscape, the neighborhood of Hoverla and the Prut River, originating on the slope of the mountain. Natural pictures of unique beauty open on the slopes of the mountain: on the way to its summit you can see the highest waterfall in the country (80 m) near the source of the Prut, in the place where it comes out of the depths of the mountain, and ancient dense fairy-tale forests with giant trees up to 50 meters high and up to 400 years old, amazing bright carpet of rare plants covering the slopes of the mountain. In total, 45 species of plants and animals listed in the Red Book grow and live on Hoverla.
The ascent to Hoverla takes several hours and is allowed from May to November. There are several hiking trails to the summit, which can be overcome by any tourist without special training, breathing in the air fragrant with pine needles and herbs and enjoying the natural beauty. However, the most breathtaking picture awaits everyone at the top of the mountain: in good weather from Hoverla you can see the longest panorama in the Ukrainian Carpathians. In the southwest rises the Marmoroshsky Ridge, separating the territories of Ukraine and Romania, in the southeast the peaks of the Black Mountain Range, to the north are the towns of Kolomyja, Ivano-Frankovsk, Sniatyn, and to the south is the Romanian city of Sighetu-Marmatii. The panorama that opens from this landmark of the Carpathians is truly breathtaking, mesmerizing and memorable forever. In such places each person is filled with a unique, incomparable energy, and the desire to feel it again returns to them again and again.
For all lovers of the beauty and grandeur of nature vacation in Rakhov is a great opportunity to relax in close proximity to the Hoverla Mountain.