Dnister Canyon

Two hundred and fifty kilometres long, with slopes rising 200m above the water in places, the Dnister canyon opens at a Jurassic outcrop near Petryliv in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast and ends near Trubchyn in Ternopil oblast, on what geologists rate as the largest exposure of Silurian rock in the world. Four oblasts hold a share of it, and a national vote in August 2008 made it one of Ukraine's seven natural wonders.

Settle one thing first. Under martial law it is the water that is restricted: small craft are barred from waterways in border zones, rafting is effectively off, and fishing rules shift with oblast military orders. Check with the park administration and the border service before committing to any route on the river. The rim — viewpoints, ecopaths, waterfalls, castles — is where a trip works at the moment.

What the river cut through

The rock here runs Silurian and Devonian, 350 to 400 million years old, laid down long before the dinosaurs. The canyon's signature is travertine, a porous limestone deposited by springs, which forms the pale cliffs hanging over the slopes, usually in the least reachable places. From the water it gives itself away by widened openings: grottoes rather than caves, shallow, but with flowstone inside that sets into shapes like stone waves, and stalactites.

Water is still doing the work: it seeps out of the cliff faces in threads thin enough to be called drip-waterfalls, and strong springs break from the slopes and cascade down. The district holds the densest concentration of caves in Ukraine, well over a hundred. Some carry coloured crystals, some sheltered people, most now shelter bats.

Spring gets here first

The walls hold the sun and block the wind, so the valley keeps its own calendar: spring arrives one to three weeks ahead of the plateau above, and winters are mild with little lying snow. The species list follows. Around 300 animal species live here: roe deer, badgers, hares and squirrels on the slopes, lizards, grass snakes and adders on warm rock, all keen to avoid you, black storks and eagle owls overhead. The river holds forty to fifty fish species, and dozens of the canyon's insects are in Ukraine's Red Book.

Plants run past 700 species. Primroses, steppe almond, Heuffel's crocus and pasqueflower have survived on ledges nothing can graze, and the cliffs carry Viola jooi, a violet reported outside these parts only from Romania and the Balkans.

Points worth aiming at

Dzhuryn Falls, 16m over three steps, is the best-known single sight, with the two towers of Chervonohorod on the bluff a few minutes above it.

On the Ternopil–Ivano-Frankivsk boundary lie the Lytiachi islands, known to everyone as Yin-Yang. A flood in 1969 dumped two sandbanks in mid-channel in a shape close enough to the symbol to name them. They cover about five hectares and stand barely a metre above the water: in a dry summer the channel between them closes and they become one island, and in high water they vanish altogether.

Chervona Hora on the left bank carries the best-known viewpoint in the canyon and, despite the name, is not red. Rakovets castle sits on a travertine cliff some 30m above the right bank: three towers, built in the 1640s and 1650s, burned by Russian troops in 1769 and never rebuilt, with a small landing beside it. Zalishchyky, wrapped almost entirely in a loop of the Dnister, is the gateway town.

The park, and the rules as they stand

Dnistrovskyi Kanion national nature park was created by presidential decree on 3 February 2010 and covers 10,829 hectares along the river and its tributaries; regional landscape parks protect further stretches. The steepest slopes are a strict reserve zone with its own regime, and not somewhere to wander into: the ground is unstable and the protection is the point.

The park keeps marked ecopaths and water routes; the longest of the latter, On the Waves of the Tyras, runs about 200km and belongs to peacetime. Ask for the current list before setting off — access conditions have moved more than once.

Further from the river, the same limestone holds Optymistychna, the longest gypsum cave in the world at more than 260km of surveyed passage, and Atlantyda, far smaller but the only cave in the region with three distinct levels and good gypsum crystals. Bakota bay and its rock monastery lie downstream, with the Khotyn and Kamianets-Podilskyi fortresses at the far end.

Getting in, and where to sleep

Zalishchyky is the easiest target on public transport — trains, including the Kyiv–Rakhiv service, plus buses — and it puts you inside the canyon on arrival. Nyzhniv, a bus ride from Ivano-Frankivsk, is the traditional put-in. Driving, aim at the nearest town to the stretch you want: the H18 from Ivano-Frankivsk, the M19 from Chernivtsi and Ternopil, the H03 from Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Beds run from riverside bases with boat hire and beaches at Hrushivtsi and Lomachyntsi to village guesthouses and campsites on the bank; Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kamianets-Podilskyi are close enough for a hotel and a daily drive. Pitching a tent: keep well back from the water, since the level rises fast after rain, carry drinking water, and bring repellent.

Late spring, summer and the golden autumn are the seasons, and April already works thanks to that early start. Boots rather than sandals, plus a hat and sun cover.