Matka Canyon lies just outside Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. Just a dozen or so kilometers from the city, the high walls of the canyon descend into a picturesque artificial lake with azure water. And if you add a path running along the shore, you have the perfect recipe for spending a day in nature.

Mother Canyon is a beautiful place, and the cafe with a view where I sat down, was fantastic. The restaurant with terrace at the water’s edge, with a beautiful view of the turquoise depths of the lake. And it’s not important that coffee here cost 50% more than in cafes in Skopje. For such view I came to Matka Canyon, and besides, one pays for pleasures. Even for the pleasure of drinking coffee with a beautiful view. I have no regrets.

It was morning, not so early, but definitely still before the main wave of tourists. They will arrive in their mass in about an hour and a half, while they are probably getting up slowly in Skopje. I make no secret of the fact that I specifically came here in the morning to have the place less crowded. After all, this is one of the main attractions of Macedonia, and being in Skopje, almost every tourist looks here. If you add to that the city’s residents, who also come here with their whole families, you get a crowd. That’s why whatever faster I got out on the trail, I wanted to be at the front of the peloton.

Although, from the perspective of my second visit to Mather Canyon, which was on a vacation and in addition on a weekend, I have to say that most people go for the boat cruise, and few choose to trek the slopes along the canyon. And that’s a shame, because it’s a beautiful, scenic route.

Easy trek along Matka Canyon

We have two ways to admire Mother Canyon. One is a trail leading along a rock shelf leading along the artificially dammed water. The other is a cruise on the lake towards Vrelo Cave. I decided to check out both!

It is pleasant to walk along the shore of this artificial lake. There are sections where having trekking shoes would definitely improve the comfort of the walk, but there is no tragedy. There are no spectacular ascents, no sharp descents, and the only thing that makes it difficult at times are the uneven rocks you have to walk on. Additional safety is provided by a metal barrier stretching along the path, and it runs along the side of the rock, so there is nothing to worry about. Anyway, these sections are the most picturesque, it is from them that you can observe the truest beauty of nature, gently assisted by human.

The emerald depths of the lake, the gray of the rocks and the spring juicy green of the plants. Above and beside us the birds arrange their treble. Everything harmonizes perfectly with each other, and the only thing that can disturb us are the motor boats passing on the lake below us time and again. And the screams of tourists, but these are fortunately rare, people are more focused on admiring nature.

At times the trail veers away from the water, and then you can only listen to the sounds of nature. There aren’t even many tourists here, because first of all, it’s early, and secondly, most people are lazy and prefer to swim rather than get tired of walking. After about an hour I reach the end of the official trail. I simply come to a metal fence, blocking off the rest of the trail. On the other side of the canyon, there are boats moored with tourists, who view the Mother Canyon from this perspective and go to the Vrelo cave. I thought maybe there would be a descent here and I could ask one of the boat operators to transport me to the cave, but there is no descent.

Instead, I jump over the fence and follow a trail already devoid of protection. It’s not hugely dangerous, and certainly no more so than the trail I followed a few months earlier in the Himalayas. It’s simply a path leading along a rock shelf, and it’s quite wide, so much so that you’d have to make an effort to fall. I walk a few hundred meters, but decide that it’s basically pointless, because I don’t even know where I’m going, so I turn back. Only now I begin to meet groups of tourists walking from the opposite direction, interestingly enough, practically every group asks the same question: How much further is it? Normally like the donkey from Shrek ;). You know what I mean 🙂

Mother Canyon cruise

After another hour, I return to the starting point, i.e. to the place from where the tourist boats go out in the Mother Canyon.

From boat perspective, the canyon looks completely different. The water is a different color, but also the walls of the forest at times seem to descend into the river. A curiosity is the bald crowns of trees sunk years ago, when this artificial lake was created to regulate the river and build a power plant. Around the bend we approach the end of the cruise, which lasts only about a quarter of an hour. Looking to the right, I can see silhouettes of people taking the same route I walked only about 45 minutes earlier. Even from this perspective, it’s clear that the farther we get from the canyon entrance, the fewer people we see – not many people like to get tired. Finally we arrive at our destination point. In front of us is Vrelo cave.

Vrelo cave – an attraction of the Mother Canyon

There are still dozens of stairs to climb, but it’s no effort. Now our master “boatman” fires up the generator so that there is lighting in the cave and you can start exploring. I won’t say that what I saw knocked me off my feet, because, for example, to the Ali Sadr cave in my personal opinion it is far from it, it’s not even this scale, but for a momentary visit quite pleasant here. There are stalactites, there are stalagmites, there are stalagmites on the walls and, of course, there is fancy illumination to make the Vrelo cave look even more impressive. My group and I spend several minutes here taking pictures and admiring the interior.

When we re-board the boat, my attention is drawn to the water current beating from beneath the water’s surface. Our boatman explains to himself that what we are seeing is water beating from a cave. Just below us is the entrance to the underground system of passageways, and to my surprise he explains to us that there is a Polish accent here, because the Pole Krzysztof Starnawski dived here to a depth of 230 meters, but as he says, it was not yet the bottom of the cave. Now it’s just a matter of returning along the same route and we have to go back to Skopje.

Interestingly, returning to the bus station in Skopje is not so easy by public transport. It turns out that on the weekend early morning buses arrive almost at the very entrance to the canyon. Unfortunately, with the influx of tourists there are more and more cars here, so many that the buses can’t get in and maneuver. Therefore, they drop off tourists about two kilometers earlier. And so they also wait for those who want to return to the capital of Macedonia. I, unfortunately, do not know about it, I walk a piece in the direction from which I came and, together with some couple, wait for transport. And here the surprise… we are approached by a gentleman who parked right next to us and explains to us that there are no buses here today, but he will drop us off at the bus stop. So ordinary, selfless, humanly speaking…. I love human kindness!

Getting  to Matka Canyon from Skopje

You can get to Matka Canyon by public transport from main bus station, which is located right next to the train station. You will arrive by bus number 60. Buy your tickets at a kiosk, which is located on the middle platform. The lady at this kiosk will sell them to you loaded on a card, just say that you need to go back to the canyon. Important: you won’t buy bus tickets from bus driver. I saw several tourists who tried to buy a ticket from him, but the gentleman with a smile refused to sell. I had the same situation when I wanted to buy tickets from the driver going to Mount Vodno, the one with the cross that rises above Skopje. Make sure to buy your ticket in advance.

For my second visit to Matka Canyon, I came with my family by car.

If you arrive here in the morning, drive your car almost “as far as it will go,” really before the road begins to narrow, there are plenty of parking spaces. Or park as other Macedonians do, somewhere along the road along the hill. Everyone parks that way, from buses to cars.

However, the later you arrive, the more problems you will have with parking. Simply put, at some point the police block the passage to further areas and you have to look for a place to park earlier. So it is all the more worthwhile to arrive early in the morning.