To truly get “off the beaten path” in Europe, you must go beyond the artistic treasures and well-trod villages. Get far away from famous museums and the energy of the great cities to explore the middle of nowhere where the beauty of nature rules supreme and the challenge of a strenuous hike makes your muscles ache and last night’s dinner taste all the more satisfying.
Getting out into nature is an often overlooked aspect of European vacations for many Americans. It’s understandable. With thousands of years of history, bucket list museums and amazing food around every corner, it is easy to set up a home base in a magical city like Rome or Munich and not venture into the great outdoors. But you truly can’t “see” Europe without experiencing its natural beauty.
Your choices are endless. Exploring fjords in Norway, caves in Slovenia, canyoning in Switzerland, hiking Vesuvius outside of Naples, coast jumping in Portugal, and gorge hikes in Greece are just a slice of what the continent has to offer. Not trying to flex, but we’ve done all of the aforementioned, so we were excited to add a new adventure to our list on our recent trip to Sardinia.
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean and features gorgeous mountains and stunning valleys butting right up to the coasts. This topography creates stunning vistas over the ocean at seemingly every other bend in the road. In fact, to get to Calla Gonone, which is perhaps our favorite town in all of Sardinia, you have to traverse a long valley, drive up a huge ridge and then drive down three miles of switchbacks to get from the top of that ridge to the sea level town below,
Sardinia has hundreds of hiking trails and thousands of miles of terrain to explore. The “100 Towers Path” is a not-quite-famous hike that takes about two months to complete and passes 100 prehistoric towers and more than 1,000 kilometers of stunning mountain views.
Like most people, we did not have 60 days to hike Sardinia, so we took our time and researched to find a one-day adventure that would offer a combination of physical challenges and pretty vistas… Gorropu Canyon fit the bill perfectly.
Gorropu is a series of intersecting canyons and gorges in the east/central part of the island. It’s about 30 minutes from Cala Gonone, about an hour's drive from most of the popular east coast resorts, and 90 minutes from the Costa Smerelda.
For those who’ve not done a gorge hike, you are following the path of either a dried-up or seasonal river. The Samaria Gorge on the south end of Crete is considered the king of gorge hikes. You start up in the mountains at a height just short of 4,000 feet above sea level. It’s so high that even on a 100 degree day, it’s a chilly 50 degrees at the start of the hike. Sixteen kilometers later you end up at the ocean. It’s all downhill…but it’s strenuous much of the time and grueling at parts.
We made that eight-hour hike in 2019 as a family — and I had my daughter in a backpack on my back. And it was rough. We are not expert, or even well-practiced, hikers. Living in Chicago, even a moderately difficult hike is three to four hours away. But we are generally open to a challenge, and slightly overconfident.
For our Sardinian trip, we had researched several trail options. Ghenna Silana looked cool but at only 2.5 kilometers, I wanted something a lit bit longer. Sa Barca Bridge and S’Abba Arva each range from 13 to 15 kilometers which was a bit more than we wanted to bite off.
Luckily, we were smart enough to go to Base Camp Gorropu seeking advice. Just off the SS-125—which is one of the prettiest drives in Sardinia. The Base Camp offers general info, maps, tours, drinks, food, and gear for any type of hike.
The friendly guide manning the cash register provided a quick overview of a half dozen different hiking options from easy to expert. We weren’t feeling up for six to eight hour hike so we opted for Jeep + shorter gorge hike. He also advised on bringing adequate water, food, water shoes, and other gear to make the hike comfortable and safe.
And boy are we glad that we did. The hike starts and ends with a Jeep ride — in our case a Land Rover that looked like it came straight from a hard 1,000 kilometers in the Outback. The ride to the drop-off point runs along unpaved ridge roads often on cliff edges that drop off several hundred feet. The driver was nonchalant while Mrs. AK was white-knuckling for most of the ride. My favorite moment was when another driver coming the other way rolled up and we were suddenly two oversized all terrain vehicles on a road that was barely wide enough for a single mid-sized car. The two drivers had obviously faced this situation previously and one expertly reversed about a quarter mile until there was a spot wide enough for one to slip past the other…with the other guy’s wheels just inches from a sheet drop-off.
The ride is only 15 minutes, and we were dropped off by a pretty creek crossing and then on a narrow dirt/rocky trail for actual hiking. This trail is allegedly 3.8 kilometers and takes only 45 minutes, but with a combo of incline/decline, shade, and full sun, it felt twice as long. It was a hot day already and while it wasn’t all that difficult…it certainly wasn’t easy. Additionally, this part of the hike had nice if unremarkable scenery which likely had the mental effect of making the first part of the trek feel a tad more difficult than it actually was.
Finally, we spied the entrance to the gorge itself and realized that we were about 50 meters above where we needed to be but there were some handy ropes to use as handholds for this last little descent.
A small lean-to shelter was erected and a friendly teenaged staff of three pointed out the natural spring for water bottle refills and the rules of the gorge. We needed a few moments of non-motion sitting before the next phase. In that time, I heard the staff share information and the introductory spiel in four different languages. This would be a dream job for an aspiring polyglot who wants to hike all day.
While Mrs. AK and I waited with our youngest, the two boys jumped up and over some rocks to check out the nearby springs. Our daughter held her hand out to pet a cat slinking around the lean-to. I wasn’t sure if it was a pet of one of the staff or a stray who knew where to get good handouts.
Finally getting a good look at the gorge, I could see that the first part was all white boulders between two and twenty feet tall. Simple spray painted arrows pointed the way around the first part of the trail and suddenly you feel like a tiny being in a land of giants as you walk, crawl and scamper across massive boulders.
This stretch only last about a quarter mile, but it is immensely fun.
The second section is a packed dirt path running under immense limestone cliffs that offer shade and flat spots for a rest or a bit of lunch. Looking up, you can see where swirling river waters carved swirls into the rocks over hundreds of years.
The third section is an alluvial trail with gravel sized pathways slowly rising up higher sided towers as the walls of the valley come together to a narrow ten foot point. Further up from there is restricted to verified experts with ropes and climbing gear.
Turning around, we slowly made our way back, soaking up the rock formations, the odd-looking dragonflies, and that happily contented feeling that one gets when being surrounded by the best of nature with the ones you love the most.
On that return trek, the kids found an extra burst of energy and climbed over boulders like monkeys, racing each other up twenty foot formations in seconds and challenging each other to trickier routes.
Finally back at the entrance, we were all hot, sweaty, dusty and dehydrated.
Those lovely springs were calling us all. Our two oldest boys stripped off their shoes and ran in clothes and all. Mrs. AK and our daughter already had her swimsuits on under their hiking shorts so they jumped in next. I was last one in to feel that wonderfully cool shock of hitting spring fresh water.
The first pool of the springs is only about a foot deep, but there are actually about fifteen different pools varying from a few inches to more than ten feet deep. And each one was a clear as glass.
We splashed, played, napped and lingered at the pools for about an hour before finally deciding that we were sufficiently cooled and recharged for the final hike to the Jeep ride back up.
Refreshed, we made it back to the transport quickly, and then everyone fell asleep immediately on the treacherous ride back up.
Finally back at the base camp again, we decided to have some sodas and sweets and take a good long last look at the stunning valley. That post-hike beer was top ten all time.
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