Tara Canyon vs Piva Canyon: which Montenegro gorge to visit
The Tara and the Piva are the two big canyons of north-western Montenegro, and they end at the same place. At Šćepan Polje, on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the two rivers meet and become the Drina. Our via ferrata is in the Piva canyon, 7 km upstream of that meeting point, so the Piva is the canyon we know well. The Tara figures below come from the national tourist board, UNESCO and the Durmitor park authority.
| Tara | Piva | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 78 km to Šćepan Polje (82 km to Hum in Bosnia) | about 33 km |
| Deepest point | 1,333 m | up to about 1,200 m |
| River | flows free | dammed at Mratinje in 1975, with Piva Lake behind the dam |
| Protected as | part of Durmitor National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site | Piva Nature Park |
| Main things to do | rafting, the Đurđevića Tara bridge, ziplines | the via ferrata, the lake, the canyon road |
| Town to stay in | Žabljak, about 20 km from the Tara bridge | Plužine, 20 km from the via ferrata bridge |
The Tara canyon
The Tara canyon runs for 78 km from the mouth of the Bistrica to Šćepan Polje, or 82 km if you measure on to Hum on the Bosnian bank. Its deepest point is 1,333 m. UNESCO’s World Heritage listing says the Tara river canyon “has the deepest gorges in Europe”. That ranking depends on what you count as Europe, so treat it as UNESCO’s description and not a measured record. The canyon is part of Durmitor National Park, which was inscribed in 1980, and about 60 km of it lies inside the park.
Rafting the Tara
The Tara has no dam, and rafts run through much of the canyon. Multi-day trips start at Splavište, below the Đurđevića Tara bridge, and cover about 60 km. One-day trips start further down at Brštanovica. Both finish at Šćepan Polje, and some trips carry on a few kilometres down the Drina to camps near Hum. The one-day run is 14 to 25 km, depending on where it finishes, and the stretch from Brštanovica to Šćepan Polje is about 15 km with more than 20 rapids.
The season runs from April to October. The river is at its highest and wildest during the snowmelt in April and May. The Durmitor park authority calls 1 July to 15 September the safest period, after the snowmelt has passed. The national tourist board says the water stays below 15 °C even in summer.
The Đurđevića Tara bridge
The bridge carries the road from Žabljak to Pljevlja across the canyon. It was built between 1937 and 1940, is 365 m long on five concrete arches, and stands about 170 m above the river. Ziplines cross the canyon beside it. It’s about 20 km by road from Žabljak, on the far side of Durmitor from Piva, so from Plužine it’s a separate day trip by way of the Sedlo pass.
The Piva canyon
The Piva canyon is about 33 km long and up to about 1,200 m deep, between the mountains of Bioč, Maglić, Volujak and Pivska planina. Much of it has been under Piva Lake since the Mratinje Dam closed the canyon in 1975. The lake is about 45 km long and up to 188 m deep. Below the dam the Piva flows as a river again for the last part of the canyon down to Šćepan Polje. The via ferrata is on that stretch, and the canyon road follows it through more than 50 short rock tunnels.
Our route lies inside Piva Nature Park, and the park fee is part of the climbing price. The Piva Canyon guide has more on its rivers and history.
Climbing above the Piva
Via Ferrata Piva starts at the road bridge over the Piva, 20 km from Plužine. A cabled path drops through the forest to the river, and the route traverses back downstream a few metres above the water on iron pegs, short ladders and steel grates over the pools. The last part is an 80 m limestone wall that finishes at the bridge. It’s graded B/C, takes one to two hours and needs no experience. Climbers must be 12 to 60 years old and weigh up to 120 kg, and we climb all year when the weather allows.
Upstream there’s Piva Lake, where Piva Nature Park runs boat trips and rents kayaks, a zipline at the entrance to Plužine, and the rebuilt Piva Monastery south of the town. Things to do near Piva Canyon lists them with distances.
Which one to choose
If you want to raft, go to the Tara, where the one-day trips start inside the canyon at Brštanovica and run down to Šćepan Polje. Come to the Piva to climb the canyon wall on the via ferrata, or to spend time on the lake. The Đurđevića Tara bridge fits better into a day in Durmitor than into a day at Piva, because the road to it goes through Žabljak.
Doing both
The two canyons are easy to combine, because the rafting trips finish at Šćepan Polje, about 7 km and 10 minutes past the via ferrata bridge on the same road. There are rafting camps around Šćepan Polje and just over the border near Hum.
Raft one day and climb the next. If you stay at a rafting camp around Šćepan Polje, the bridge is 10 minutes away for the climb in the morning. Or climb first, then drive the 10 minutes to Šćepan Polje and stay the night before an early rafting start. Our partners Adventure Montenegro run the rafting from Brštanovica to Šćepan Polje and a full day on the Tara. Plan a day at Piva has more on the climbing day, and Durmitor from Piva covers Žabljak, Black Lake and the bridge side of the park.