Canyons and waterfalls of Montenegro, from the Tara to Grlja

Look for waterfalls in Montenegro and you’ll mostly find canyons, which is no bad thing. The country has gorges more than a kilometre deep, technical canyoning routes that end beside medieval walls and falls tucked away in the mountains. Here they are from easiest to most demanding, using figures from the National Tourism Organisation and the National Parks.

The Tara, the canyon to see

It’s the country’s great canyon. The National Tourism Organisation gives 78 km of gorge between the mouth of the Bistrica and Šćepan Polje, with a maximum depth of 1,333 m between Obzor and Štuoc, and UNESCO calls it Europe’s deepest gorge. You can see it without getting wet from the Đurđevića Tara Bridge, a 365 m concrete span on five arches finished in 1940, where a zip line launches at around 150 m above the river. Or you can travel through it by raft, from April to October, along the 18 km stretch between Brštanovica and Šćepan Polje. It’s all in the Tara Canyon and Tara rafting.

Piva, Komarnica and Nevidio

West of Durmitor, the Piva and the Komarnica carve canyons around Lake Piva, which you can tour by boat according to the National Tourism Organisation. Inside the Komarnica is Nevidio, 3,500 m of gorge with jumps as high as 10 m, taking roughly four hours to descend, first traversed in full only in 1965 and also known as Neviđbog. This is proper canyoning, with kit and a guide. I cover it in Nevidio Canyon.

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The Morača, the one you see from the car

The Morača is the canyon most people see without meaning to, because the road between Podgorica and the north runs through it. gov.uk flags this two-lane road as risky when the weather turns or the traffic builds, so I’d enjoy it as a passenger, in daylight, and leave the overtaking to the locals. Morača Monastery stands in the same valley, in the municipality of Kolašin. Driving it is covered in the Morača Canyon.

Prokletije, canyons with waterfalls

The falls closest to what people are searching for are in Prokletije. The National Parks describe trails through the Grbaja and Ropojana valleys taking in the Ropojana lake, the Oko Skakavice spring, the Grlja canyon and waterfalls. Grlja is 500 m long, 50 m deep and between 2 and 7 m wide, was discovered in 1982 and begins where the Skakavica meets the Vusanje stream. The village you set off from is covered in Vusanje.

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Canyoning routes by the sea

Two of them end, quite literally, in an old town. Škurda is 1.2 km long, begins about 200 m below the Krstac pass and spits you out at the foot of Kotor’s walls six or seven hours later. Vruća rijeka covers about 6 km in six to eight hours and runs from Veliki Mikulići down to the walls of Stari Bar. Both are technical, and to me they only make sense with a specialist operator. Near Podgorica, the tourism board also lists the Cijevna canyon, which reaches as far as Tuzi.