Hiking the Black Rock Lake in Lagodekhi, Georgia

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It’s Thursday evening. I am leaving the office at 6:30 pm to pack for a three-day hike with my husband, Oto and my colleague, Ruska. It’s been one year since my spinal surgery. I am nervous about how my waist will react to hiking the Black Rock Lake trail in Lagodekhi at 3,000 meters above the sea level.

The Lagodekhi National Park located in the Kakheti region is 185 km away from Tbilisi and borders with Azerbaijan and Dagestan. It conserves a variety of rare flora and fauna making the track here an unforgettable adventure.

lagodekhi

We drive during the night to Lagodekhi to start our hike early in the morning on Friday. Black Rock Lake Trail is one of the hardest, interesting and beautiful trails in all of Georgia. It boasts with magnificent views over the Caucasus and Alazani valley. The track is doable in three days, but for more enjoyment, I would recommend four or even five days.

Things you should know before hiking the Black Rock Lake Lagodekhi: 

  • Call the administration and ask how safe is it to hike at your desired date. The weather conditions might be dangerous, and they won’t let you go.
  • The trail to the first camping site and a visitor’s center are around 13 km away. From here the lake is another 13 km away, while the second shelter is 3 km from here. This year the administration created a circuit trail from the second shelter back to the administration. They say it’s 15 km down the steep hill. However, according to Ruska’s Health application, it was around 20 km long.
  • There is no water along the first and circuit track so bring plenty of it.
Hiking the Black Rock Lake in Lagodekhi, Georgia 1
  • Download Maps.me application – this is one of the best maps I have tried. Even better than Google. It works offline and finds your location in the middle of the forest.
  • The second visitor’s center is in the alpine area, so there is no wood to warm up at the fireplace or boil some water. Bring a camping gas stove with you.
  • There is no electricity in any of the sites, so be prepared to charge all your gadgets beforehand.
Hiking the Black Rock Lake in Lagodekhi, Georgia 2
  • Have warm clothes. It gets freezing in the evening and at night.
  • Have your passports or ID; you might need to show it to Georgian border police once you start the trail to the lake.
  • Prices: 5 GEL to stay with your tent and 15 to sleep in the visitor’s center per person.
Hiking the Black Rock Lake in Lagodekhi, Georgia 3

Hiking the Black Rock Lake Lagodekhi

The trail is marked very well with red/white or only red paint on the trees and rocks. The only disadvantage was that we could not understand how many kilometers we walked until we reached the middle of the tail. You see ‘6 km’ written in big letters on the tree. Walking up the hill is quite hard as the trail is narrow and rocky most of the time. The whole load comes on ankles and knees. And if you want to make your path easier, you can hire a horse and a guide for 100 GEL a day.

Hiking the Black Rock Lake in Lagodekhi, Georgia 4

The surroundings are stunning and silent, so quiet that when the leaves fall from the trees, you think something in the bushes just moved. The forest is full of old trees, many of which fell due to various reasons. And as it was autumn the forest-covered slopes look like a color pallet gradually shifting from green towards red. Simply jaw-dropping landscapes.

Hiking the Black Rock Lake in Lagodekhi, Georgia 5

The lack of experience in hiking such places led us to walk slow so we would hit the destination right before the sunset.

The circuit trail is quite steep, even more, hard than the first ones. look’s a newly cut trail, it’s not very visible, and sometimes the marks are far away from each other. We almost missed it twice and walked in an entirely different direction. The pathway here is similar – rocky and very steep. Even after hours of walking without a break, it seemed we were walking on the same level and not going down the mountain. It appeared to be a never-ending trail at some point.

Hiking the Black Rock Lake in Lagodekhi, Georgia 6

Moreover, each piece of our leg muscle hurt terribly, Ruska had blisters, and I had the burning feeling in my feet, making us walk even slower. If I knew in advance, I would not go this way and would have hiked from the side we walked the first two days. The reason choosing the circuit was to cut some kilometers short, but we ended up walking even a bit more (!)However, I must say that the forest on this side of the trail was much, much gorgeous than the first. At least something to shift my mind from the burning pain I had.

If we had more days to spend here that would have been perfect. But despite the fact that my leg muscles still hurt four days after, I do not regret a bit of it.

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❣ Pre-book a private car transfer with GoTrip from Tbilisi Airport to your hotel or any other city across Georgia.

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8 Comments

  1. It looks absolutely beautiful in there! Looks worth four days of muscle pain for me at least 😀 I have never been to Georgia but it’s one of my dream destinations and can’t wait to make it there one day! Definitely wanna do this hike as well.

  2. This is going to make you laugh. I initially thought that this article was about Georgia the state in the U.S. lol. I need to work on my geography a little bit more. ? Anywho, this is such a great article as it introducing those like me who have never heard of the country Georgia and a possibility of hiking there. Phenomenal.

    1. Haha don’t worry. We get mixed up all the time :))

  3. Anna Schlaht says:

    I absolutely love hiking, with a goal to hike everywhere I visit! So hopefully I can put this location on the list in future. 🙂 Thanks for all the great tips. Good to know there’s no water, and the danger of blisters is never fun! Sorry to hear you were hurting at the end. We’ll be sure to use your suggestions if we get to the area so we can avoid that.

  4. Looks like an amazing hike! I love it when hard work pays off with stunning views 🙂

  5. Informative post. Tha ks for the maps.me tip! I jnew there had to be a better alter ative to google maps. Beautiful pictures. Was the lake actually black?

  6. Wow, that’s something I’d love to do one day! I’ve been twice to Kakheti, but never on any hikes. I’m in Georgia at the moment, but on this trip I won’t make it there. Hopefully next time!

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