One of the most interesting and also my favorite national park in Poland is Bieszczady National Park that covers 292 square kilometers of mountains and forest. Squeezed into the south-eastern edge of Poland – between Ukraine and Slovakia, it is a true kingdom of wild nature. Large predators such as the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) and Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) live in this region. When walking along the path, you can sometimes see the big paw prints imprinted in the mud. Occasionally you can also see the herds of Wild Bison (Bison bonasus) that several dozen years ago were brought to this area from Bia-łowie-ża National Park.
You can also meet many species of owls – such as the Ural owl (Strix uralensis), or the smallest European species of owl – the owl (Glaucidium passerinum).
The slopes of the mountains are covered with beech trees – light green in spring, fabulously colorful in autumn. The ancient Carpathian Forest covers this region of Poland. In the past, Carpathian Forests covered a much larger area of Poland, but to this day only three small enclaves remain. In addition to the Bieszczady Mountains, the areas of the Magura National Park and the Przemyskie Foothills are covered with native beech forests, The priceless old trees are safe only in areas belonging to national parks.
There were plans to create a new national park, Turnicki National Park, in the Przemyskie Foothills, but unfortunately this has not happened. Timber harvesting continues in this region. Every day, trucks transport old beeches, maples, hornbeams and firs from the forest, and the sensitive ecosystem of the forest is destroyed by heavy equipment used for logging. Naturalists from the Natural Heritage Foundation and young activists from the Wild Carpathians Initiative are protesting the cutting of old-growth trees
Above the forest border there are open spaces covered with grass and blueberries, the so-called “meadows.” Today the meadows are great viewpoints – great spots for landscape photographers: Bukowe Berdo, Po łonina Wetli ńska, Cary ńska. In the past, sheep were grazed in these areas. This area – almost uninhabited today – was inhabited quite densely by the Ruthenian population, known as Boyki, until the Second World War. To this day, there are wooden churches, overgrown cemeteries, roadside crosses, and wild orchards – souvenirs of people who lived, who after the war, by the communist regime, were relocated to Russia or to the other side of Poland. The villages were deserted, the places of former homesteads were overgrown and only a legend and songs reminiscing about the old days remained.
The Bieszczady National Park is one of the most popular Polish parks. Poles still have the myth of “wild Bieszczady” – a place where you can hide and take a break from civilization, telephones and the internet. And although the journey from the capital takes about seven hours by car- many people decide to go on this trip to spend at least a few days in the wild – climb the highest peak – Tarnica, and in the evening drink a beer in one of the fashionable pubs in Wetlina or Cisna.
Unfortunately, this popularity has a price – the park is very crowded in the summer season or during longer breaks and holidays. Therefore, if you want to really feel the beauty of this place – it’s better to go to Bieszczdy out of season.
The mornings and evenings are definitely better times, closer to the so-called golden hour – when the light is softer, the colors are more saturated, warmer, and distant views more vivid. Unfortunately, it is forbidden to stay in the national park from dusk until dawn without a permit, which makes it impossible to sleep in the wild in beautiful places or photograph the sunrise from the top of the mountain. Unless you can run uphill fast with your photo gear! Fortunately, two mountain pastures – Cary ńska and Wetli ńska are not so high and can be easily climbed. And the morning in such a mountain pasture can be particularly picturesque, especially when the so-called inversion – and the sea of clouds will be below us, below the tops of the mountains.
When going to the mountains, it is necessary to remember, of course, about decent hiking boots, a wind and rain jacket, and a warmer sweater or polar fleece as if the weather broke. And you know – in the mountains it is different. It is worth taking something to drink, a sandwich, a bar or chocolate, a flashlight and a cell phone (because even when there is sometimes no coverage in the valleys – you can catch it at the top).
But when we go hunting for beautiful photography opportunities – we have to take much more with us. I usually take a large backpack that holds my camera – Canon EOS 5d mark IV, two lenses – universal Canon 24-105mm f / 4 II and the Canon 100-400 f / 4-5.6 II telephoto lens. Sometimes – if there is a chance for extremely picturesque clouds, beautiful skies – I also put the Canon 16-35 f / 4 wide angle (and in the past 17-40 f / 4) into the backpack.
In addition, there is a mandatory supply of batteries, a polarization filter, thanks to which I can better bring out the beauty of clouds or rainbow in the sky. A good polarizing filter is also useful in the forest, especially wet from fog or rain – it allows you to reduce the reflection of light from wet leaves, making the image more saturated and effective. It is also useful to have a half gray filter with you to reduce too much contrast between the bright sky and the darker landscape below.
Less necessary, but sometimes also useful are the ND 1000 or ND 500 gray filters, which, by extending the exposure time significantly, allow a more artistic presentation of clouds flowing in the sky or water in mountain streams. Currently, mirrorless cameras, which additionally have a built-in stabilization in the body and great opportunities for shooting at higher ISO sensitivities, can sometimes cope with the lack of a tripod, but in the case of an ordinary SLR or in the case when a long time is necessary to achieve the desired effect – you should attach to the backpack also a stable tripod. However, there were also such days, especially in winter, when the wind was so strong that it knocked me over with my backpack, so there was no question of taking a tripod. Back then, the only solution was to set a high ISO and take handheld photos. Winter is generally snowy and demanding in the mountains. High snowdrifts can be found here when there is no snow at all in other parts of Poland. Then you may need snowshoes or, if the trail is icy, crampons.
I especially like being high in the meadows during golden hour especially when there is an inversion. In the mountains – when the foreground is attractive (e.g. some rocks) – wide angle shots are very good. But I think I like the telephoto shots the most, especially when they are taken against the sun. Apart from showing the beauty of the place I am in – I look for frames that are not quite obvious. These pictures may not be suitable for guidebooks or calendars, but they are more personal, more artistic.
On the other hand, when I head south, I can go on a long hike in the mountains and admire the breathtaking views. This is the range of the Sudetes and the Carpathians, the highest peak of which is Rysy in the Tatra Mountains (2500 meters above sea level).
But Poland is also a land of numerous lakes (Warmia and Mazury and other lake districts), peat bogs and rivers. Some of them, still wild and unregulated every spring, create picturesque backwaters, such as the Biebrza River – a real paradise for both birds and wildlife photographers.
The forests support many species of mammals -roe deer, deer, foxes, elks, and if you are lucky – also wolves, which are fortunately protected in Poland. In the forests, which make up about 30% of the country’s area, you can find mainly pine, as well as oak, birch, and hornbeam. In more natural forests you can also find spruce (mainly in northeastern Poland and in the mountains), beech, sycamore, and in the mountains also fir and larch.
Snowy, decent winter, bright green spring and colorful autumn – I recommend all three seasons to go to those, maybe not the highest, but very picturesque mountains. Not only in the Bieszczady Mountains. In my opinion, these are the best seasons (especially October – the time of “golden Polish autumn” when forests become colorful and the turn of April and May, when nature comes to life, young green has an intense color, and there are many flowers in the forests and meadows) to get to know the beauty of wild nature in Poland.
Poland – on the one hand, a thoroughly European country, on the other – thanks to its location on the eastern border of the European Union – Poland is a place where many wild, beautiful and valuable pieces of wild nature have survived. I invite you to visit Poland and our national parks.
