Yaremche. The Elephant Rock. Hey There, Carpathian Giant!

Travellers are always in search of places that leave unforgettable impressions. Ukraine has a host of wonderful spots to which even the most seasoned tourists, who have seen it all, want to return and feel something unsurpassed once more. Yaremche is a wellspring of natural and man-made landmarks that astonish, inspire and make one exult. In the central part of the town, east of the main road, stands a Carpathian marvel — the Elephant Rock.

 

Yaremche. The Elephant Rock

This outcrop of rock earned its exotic name from its outward likeness to the majestic animal of the savanna. The relief outline of the rock and the layered surface of the flysch exposures on the cliff recall the silhouette of a forest giant, the build and the colour of its hide. The trunked fat one formed on the western slope of the lovely Makovytsia and came right down to the water at the right bank of the Prut to drink.

 

People of rich imagination compare this mountain picture to a Gothic castle as they take in the monumental mass thrusting upward with its ribbed faces. The verticality of the massif and the sharpness of its forms are akin to the decoration of medieval palaces.

 

The geological wonder is around 70 million years old, and over all that epochal eternity only part of the ridges has become covered with forest growth, which lends the mountain complex a picturesque and mysterious air. This Yaremche landmark lies 800 metres from the railway station, from which one should walk north along Svobody Street and turn onto Pidskelna Street to the north-east. Beside the Elephant, magical panoramas open up, and on the bank of the mountains' blue artery there are glades for rest and for tourist stops. 

Coordinates: 48°27'1"N 24°33'46"E

Where else in Yaremche might travellers take a walk?

An open-air display with scaled-down copies of the natural and architectural landmarks of the Yaremche and Verkhovyna areas, in the park of miniatures in the Zhonka tract. Waterfalls on the Zhonka river. 

Yaremche. A copy of the observatory on Mount Pip Ivan 

The Probiy waterfall on the Prut river. A souvenir market.

Yaremche. The Probiy waterfall

Enclosures with the inhabitants of the Carpathian National Nature Park. 

Yaremche. Enclosures with deer

 

The Yaremche town community includes the village of Mykulychyn, with its rich list of tourist routes over the mountain peaks and its spiritual and intellectual leisure. 

Mount Kostel and the stone garden. 

The Church of the Holy Trinity and the bell-tower museum. 

The Museum of Hutsul Customary Symbolism and ethnographic displays. 

The narrow-gauge carriage museum and the Austrian bridge. 

The great Carpathian swing and a flight to seventh heaven. 

The Mykulychyn marketplace with kolomyikas and national colour.