THE FIVE LAKES ROUTE

The route goes through the Vihren hut-Muratovo lake-Ribno lake-Jabeshko lake-Th Long lake-The Eye-Vihren hut.

This route is easy and accessible for a wide range of people. It takes about 4 hours and the denivelation is about 350-400 meters.

The exit point of the route is the Vihren hut / 1950 meters above sea level/. It takes about 40 minutes to reach the hut by bus from Bansko.

From Vihren hut the route takes south-west direction and crosses the grassy shore of Bunderitsa river through the Ravnaka terrain. After that the route follows the east scarp of the Muratov peakq crosses some little streams and takes us to the Muratovo lake.  

Now on the route goes to the south. The path coils through bushes and grassy slopes and in 20-30 minutes reaches the Ribnoto lake. This lake is 2190 meters above the sea level, it is 384 meters long and 230 meters wide. The lake is 12 meters deep. A small peninsula with green grass and bushes in the south part of the lake makes it even more beautiful. In the lake`s water you can see the reflexion of the stone crowns of Banderishki slope, Donchovi Karauli and Muratov peak. There`s a breath taking view towards the Vihren peak.

The path goes on to south and takes us higher to the beautiful Jabeshko lake, which area is 0,5 hectares and is only 2 meters deep. After 10 minutes we reach The Long lake with its 4,55 hectares area, 500 meters length, 150 meters width and approximately 10 meters depth. After The Long lake the route turns back following a north direction towards the lake called The Eye. The Eye is about 15-20 minutes away from the Vihren hut. The well-marked path goes down through  bushes and grass areas and in an hour you reach the lake. It is situated at 2082 meters above the sea level and is 57 meters wide, about 5 meters deep and has 0,3 hectares of area. In the summer the temperature of the water reaches 18 C but swimming there is forbidden.