Czech Paradise hike: 6 km route with views of Trosky Castle

A six-kilometer hike from the village of Rokytnice through the Podtrosecké valleys in the Czech Paradise lets you see Trosky Castle from many different angles. Along the way hikers find rocks, ponds and a wooden bird tower; in August 2026 a couple touring the region by car walked the route.

The road to Rokytnice

The morning that day was cool: about 18 degrees and a cold wind after the heat. The road from the Turnov area leads through Příšovice, home to many log houses, timbered farmsteads and half-timbered buildings, so drivers go slowly here.

Another stop on the way is Ohrazenice. Since 2019 it has had a concrete water tower with an observation deck. It resembles the FIFA trophy or a ball on jets of water, and it replaced the earlier source at Záborčí, where the water contained too much manganese. The tower is 27.5 m tall, its upper sphere, 8 m in diameter, is welded from 24 plates, and the platform at 16.8 m is reached through a transparent tube with a spiral staircase of 96 steps. From there you can see Turnov, Ještěd, Trosky, the Czech Paradise and the Krkonoše. But the tower is in service, so it can be climbed on only a few days a year, accompanied by waterworks staff. Dates are announced on the village website at least 14 days in advance.

The route from Rokytnice to Vidlák

The route starts at the parking lot in Rokytnice. First follow the blue markers and the road uphill; after about a kilometer, turn left onto a steep climb of around 0.5 km. At the highest point the blue markers head off toward Trosky, but hikers continue on an unmarked path, from which only one of the castle's two towers, Panna, is visible.

The path then reaches asphalt and turns again onto an unmarked road. Views open up of Vyskeř, Kozákov, Ještěd and Hrubá Skála Castle, and Trosky Castle looks different every time. Plums, blackberries and other berries grow along the verges. At the red markers begins the hardest section: a descent down rock steps near the hamlet of Kouty, where quite a few people pass.

About halfway along, the route reaches the pond Vidlák. The restaurant by the parking lot was closed that day, but a drinks kiosk across the road was open.

The nature trail and the bird tower

From the parking lot the route continues along the yellow markers and, at the same time, along the nature trail “Podtrosecké údolí”. The whole trail is 10 km long, runs from Malechovice station to Borek pod Troskami station and has 13 stops with stories about nature and history. It passes rocks, the largest of which is called the Lord's Tower, and the Vidlák pond, which is gradually turning into a peat bog.

The Hrudka spring was empty because of the drought, but water was flowing at the Čtyřlístek spring and is said to be drinkable. Further on you can see the Hrudka pond, separated by a dam from the Rokytnice pond. The Rokytnice pond was probably built in the 15th or 16th century on the site of marshes below Trosky and was then twice as large as it is today. Now it is used for fish farming, swimming and relaxing.

In 2014 an enclosed wooden bird-watching tower 4.5 m high was built by the pond, jutting out over the water. Here you can spot marsh harriers, reed buntings, spotted crakes, kingfishers, great reed warblers, grebes, coots, swans, ducks and herons. To help identify the birds, metal silhouettes with names are mounted on the tower. The trail and the yellow markers end at the tower, and a short walk along the road remains to the parking lot.

An evening by the ski jump in Lomnice

For the night the travelers drove to Lomnice nad Popelkou, where there is a parking lot by the ski jumps and one of the jumps is fitted out as an observation tower. The restaurant Můstky next door serves dishes costing 145 to 200 crowns. Overnight stays on the upper parking lot are not allowed, so the car was moved to the lower one.

By evening it turned sharply colder: the forecast promised about 7 degrees by morning. In the cab of the car it was 24 degrees in the sun, but at 9 p.m. it was already 16 outside and 18 inside.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by turistika.cz