Red Lake Bicaz

The Red Lke is a natural barage lake, situated at the foot of Hăşmaşu Mare Mountain (The Big Hăşmaş Mountain), near Gheorgheni town, Harghita county. It is the biggest natural mountain lake in Romania, its name coming from the red river that crosses red layers, with oxides and iron hidroxides.

The lake seems dark and threatening, the stumps coming out of the water leading to the impression that a lake civilisation found its ending several years before. Duck flocks are passing unfeared near you, if you take the boat on the lake. This could be a real reason of rowing the boat for about 10 minutes, competing the quackers, sailing away from the shore and observing the civilisation from a distance. – mountain climbing and scaling, speology and trip-making.

The Red Lake has been formed recently, one day of July 1837. Then, after several storms and torrential rains, a piece ot he mountain from The Ucigaşu Mountain( the Killer Mountain) was detached and it blocked the rivers Licaş, the Goat’s river and the Red river.

Actual witnesses of the natural calamity are the common spruce stumps that remained in the water.

The purple reflection in the lake of the Suhardu Mic (the Small Suhardu) river, the presence of the redish alluviums brought especially by the Red River and the red limestones around, made the shepherds to name the river The Red Lake.

In 1857, three tourists from Gheorgheni halted on its shores, amazed and charmed by the wild beauty of the mountain view and of the lake. They told everybody that they had discovered a corner of paradise. Since the, attracted by the natural beauty of the lake, by the richness of the fauna and flora, lots of tourists travelled across this region.

The lake’s neighborhoods have a very wealthy fauna and flora, predominant being the conifer forests combined with the nut trees, the mountain willow, on the nearby mountainsides the white fir tree, the maple and the mountain poplar are growing, and, among the animals, the lynx, the chamois, the wolves, the stags and the wild boars are living here.