Ţarcu Mountains are part of a vast, over 300,000-hectare wild area in southwest Romania – one of the Carpathians’ greatest riches. Wild areas are also the “thermometer” of our daily health because they are indicators of the health and welfare of nature. But they do more than making a diagnose: they also provide treatments by reinforcing the ecosystem’s resilience to climate change. Wisely used, wilderness areas can provide “modern” economically measurable benefits: the aesthetic value of the landscape, recreational spaces, medicinal plants, water, all this and many others are business and tourism opportunities, sources of direct prosperity.
Ţarcu Mountains represent a mountainous unit belonging to the north-western part of the Southern Carpathians. Its surface has a triangular shape, with almost equal canals, oriented towards the valleys of the Timiş and Bistra rivers, respectively with the hypotenuse formed by the two valleys with opposite directions the Cold River (also known as the Hideg River) and the river Ses, continued by the valley of the River Rivers, in turn a tributary of the Strei River.
The main hill is oriented from north-east to south-west. The maximum altitude of the massif is reached at Căleanu peaks, with 2,192m (2,190 according to other sources), Tarcu with 2,190m, and Pietries with 2,162m.