Dovžan Gorge Scenic Educational Trail
Who will be the first to find a dinosaur?

The gorge is a journey through time. Although it is older than the dinosaurs, no dinosaur ever trod here. They did, however, swim: 300 million years ago this place was the site of a tropical sea, teeming with marine animals. Today in the walls of the gorge we can see their fossilized remains in abundance, including some that are found nowhere else in the world.

Today there is a spectacular narrow gorge here.

The trail starts from the parking area in the village of Čadovlje near Tržič. It winds past the information panels, between the steep multi-colored walls, across the bridge and through the tunnel, past the longest rapids in Slovenia and by a geological column where you can see rocks from all the ages, from 300 million years ago to today.

This is a paradise for admirers of beauty and for free climbers.

For bolder explorers there is a steep panoramic route equipped with iron rungs secured by steel cables that anyone who doesn't suffer from vertigo can traverse. Free climbers can squeeze their fingers into the holds of climbing routes along the mysterious Kušpegar's Befries, five vertical rock towers that are the remnants of a prehistoric coral reef.

There are as many secrets here as there are rocks.

Although the Dovžan Gorge is full of fossils at every turn, a dinosaur has not yet been found. Somewhere buried deep it is waiting for someone to discover it.

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Sections of the scenic educational trail:

Section 1:
From the parking area in Čadovlje past the paštba (a shed for drying flax) along the right bank of the Tržic Bistrica River to the narrowest part of the gorge

• scenic path through forest
• length: approx.1 km
• time required: 30 minutes
• difficulty: easy

Section 2:
From the narrowest part of the gorge through the tunnel to the geological column

• road
• length: approx. 300 metres
• time required: 10 minutes
• difficulty: easy

Section 3:
From the narrowest part of the gorge over the saddle to the geological column – “Bence Path”

WARNING! This section is closed till middle of April!

• protected panoramic route leading in part through forest, in part requiring climbing (equipped with steel cables and pitons)
• length: 500 metres
• time required: 30 minutes
• difficulty: difficult, not suitable for those with vertigo

Section 4:
From the geological column to the Exhibition and Educational Centre by road (past Point 13 of the Slovenian Geological Trail)

• road
• length: 600 metres
• time required 20 minutes
• difficulty: easy

Section 5:
Forest Educational Trail (from the narrowest part of the gorge to the parking area in Čadovlje)

• forest path
• length: 800 metres
• time required 20 minutes
• difficulty: easy

Section 6:
From the geological column across the hamlet in Jame to the Exhibition and Educational Centre in Dolina

• part gravel road, part road
• length: 1 km
• time required: 20 minutes
• difficulty: easy

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Brochure for the Dovžan Gorge