The Morača Canyon, from Kolašin down to the Podgorica plain

The Morača Canyon is the one most people in Montenegro see without meaning to. The main road between Podgorica and the north runs down it, so any trip to Kolašin, the Tara or Biogradska Gora on the classic route passes between its walls. It isn’t the country’s deepest canyon, but it’s the most accessible, and I think it’s the best introduction to Montenegro’s mountains from the capital.

The river and the canyon

The Morača is 99.5 km long according to MONSTAT (the Podgorica tourist board says 113). It rises in the north beneath Mount Rzača, runs as a fast mountain river and, after joining the Zeta north of Podgorica, crosses the plain to Lake Skadar. The Podgorica tourist board calls it one of the capital’s symbols.

The Kolašin tourist board places the canyon on the river’s middle course, just before it reaches the plain, across Podgorica and Kolašin municipalities. It measures it at about 30 km, with sheer walls reaching 1,000 metres deep near Tisov vrh. Its fishing page gives different figures, 38 km and 1,050 m, so I’d stick to the order of magnitude.

The canyon road

The national tourist board lists the Morača among the canyons that are well known because a road runs through them, like the Piva and the Cijevna. It’s a two-lane road, and the FCDO warns it turns risky with bad weather or lots of traffic. Since 13 July 2022 there’s been another way to Kolašin, the Podgorica to Mateševo motorway section, which according to the ski operator puts Kolašin 1600 half an hour from the capital.

My advice is to save the canyon for a clear day and take it steadily, keeping right and not overtaking on bends. On the way, 25 km from Kolašin, is Morača Monastery, founded in 1252, with the Svetigora waterfall beside it.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Kolašin for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

The Mrtvica and the side gorges

The most dramatic tributary is the Mrtvica. The Kolašin tourist board says its gorge runs about 10 km and drops to roughly 1,250 metres, the second deepest in the country after the Tara Canyon. In its first kilometre, at Zeleni vir, Prince Danilo built a stone bridge in 1858 in honour of his mother, Krstinja. Further in, the source describes a beach among beech trees, springs such as the Bijeli Nerini, which pour into the river in jets, and the Kapija želje, a rock where, legend has it, you throw a stone in silence to make a wish.

For canyoning there are several options. The Bogutovo stream, which joins the Morača before Trmanje, has ten abseils, the longest about 35 metres, and takes 4 to 5 hours. The Kruševački stream gorge can only be reached by train, getting off at the halt of the same name on the Kolašin to Podgorica line, and has about fifteen abseils. Both need proper equipment and, unless you’re experienced, a guide.

Fishing the Morača

The Kolašin tourist board pitches the canyon as fine fishing country, with brown trout, grayling and mladica, especially the prized glavatica, and artificial lures only. For fly fishing, Biogradska Gora National Park runs a catch-and-release beat on the Tara. For a bed, the practical choices are Kolašin, at the head of the canyon, or Podgorica itself, where it opens out.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Kolašin for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.