Romania's Grand Canyon (Rapa Rosie/The Red Ravine) | Let's travel together #373

Since last Saturday, I mentioned the two places you can quickly observe while driving on the A1 highway, and one of them was Rapa Rosie (EN: The Red Ravine). I thought I should write about this place again, even though I have already written about it before.

The simple 'excuse' for doing it is that it represents one of the few places in Romania that I feel like I could visit 100 times before and still want to return for more.

It might be the unique rock formations that could easily fool anyone into thinking I was somewhere in America exploring the Grand Canyon, or that it still represents a place that is not very well known by a lot of people, but no matter when you visit it, you'll still enjoy a lot of silence and moments close to nature.

Either way, a few months ago, along with my sister and some friends, we decided to have a spontaneous trip on a Saturday morning, having more stops along the way.

While all of us except one person had not seen Rapa Rosie before, it seemed like a good excuse for all of us to stop by once again, so he could explore it as well. Funny thing is that I was actually looking for another excuse so I could make my way towards this place once again.

Little did I know that the way to it was damaged heavily during the storms and rains Romania's been part of at the beginning of the year, so what we thought it was going to be a chill drive with an unreal beauty in front of us, has quickly turned into a driving exam for me while trying to arrive to the destination without remaining stuck with the car in a large crater formed in the ground by flooding.

Happily, no bad things happened, and pretty soon we arrived in a place that has earned the unofficial name of Romania's Grand Canyon.

Actually, there were quite a few caravans around this place, most of them had foreign license plates which brought a big smile to my face, thinking that when I first visited Rapa Rosie I did not find anyone else on the way. So it turns out that it's slowly but surely starting to gain the attention of foreign tourists as well.

In both the other two visits I had at Rapa Rosie, I made my way through the little forest that can be found at the foothills of the mountains, then followed all the way up to the interesting rock formations, the path still being visible in my pictures.

That is, actually, a great way to get closer to the stones and even touch them to analyse their interesting structure. But the best way to observe everything is from the hill facing it, because it offers a complete view of nature's beauty, which, otherwise, will make it feel incomplete if seen too closely.

Along with the natural beauty that I doubt there would be anyone who wouldn’t like it, the Red Ravine catches a lot of attention after rainy periods because the rock formations are made of red clay, and they create a whole new landscape where bloody tiny rivers are formed.

Obviously, the whole process is easy to be understood since the sediments of the rocks are mostly red, and the water washes tiny parts of it that also make the water get a reddish colour, but for those of you who enjoy legends, keep in mind that the place is full of such stories.

One of the most popular ones is about someone who robbed a bank and hid all the money in all kinds of caves formed in between the pyramidal rock formations. While no money was ever found, once the rain kicks in and creates the bloody tiny rivers, everything is also said to be accompanied by paranormal sounds very similar to screams, which are also linked to the whole area being haunted by the spirits of those who died here searching for the money hidden by the thief.

Real or not, during my stops by, I never saw the ravine other than with a clear blue sky. Although a little part inside of me makes me curious to visit it during the rain or even spend the night when the so called 'screams' are mentioned to also be heard, I am not sure if I'd be brave enough for this experience, haha.

What I know for sure, instead, is that we had a great time re-visiting this place and I was really happy to see that not much has changed except for some lands that seemed like being bought nearby and which I except to see turning into a camping area soon. Nevertheless, I am grateful for not coming here again with another moment of frustration after people decided to ruin nature's beauty by polluting it with their garbage. Hopefully, that will never be the case for this place.

Anyway, since I try to avoid recycling content and share information that I already mentioned in my other two posts, I will stop here but not before saying that if you ever cross the A1 motorway between Orăştie – Sibiu consider at least looking out the window because you will pass just 2 km away from The Red Ravine which can be seen from the distance, although I'd still encourage you to follow the unpaved path towards it because it's so much worth it.

If you want to get any closer to it, no matter from what direction you come, you have to reach Daia Română village by following the county road DJ106, then get on the Călărași Street from Sebes which will take you under the highway, and then follow the path on the left and turn on a gravel road which will take you to the ravine while being accompanied by a small river on the left. Either way, if you set your GPS to Rapa Rosie, you will have all the directions given by the little device until you reach the foothills of the natural beauty.

^{Gabriela Travels is a Curator for Worldmappin and Hive Gaming communities, but also the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences.
At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe.
Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (350+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game and book reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 850+ blog posts.
Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.}

[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 45.98476 lat 23.58793 long A place that once you see once, you'll know you will return for more d3scr))