If you’re visiting Zagori and Vikos you’re probably likely to hear about the short walk to the Beloi lookout. The views are spectacular. You can see almost the entire length of Vikos gorge. The only problem is that this is the one viewpoint of Vikos that most people know about. Unless you go at dawn, you’re unlikely to have the view to yourself.
The last time we visited the Vikos National Park, we discovered Megas Lakos almost by accident. Megas Lakos is a gorge that branches off from Vikos. Even though you can’t see all of Vikos gorge from Megas Lakos, the views from the Kakia Skala steps are a great alternative (or addition) to the Beloi Lookout. They're harder to get to, but there are no other visitors and the views are wonderful. There’s also a little thrill about the whole experience as there are no barriers or walls to protect you from the sheer 600-metre drop.
We visited in July when wildlife was everywhere - we found many beautiful orchids, wild strawberries and the meadows were filled with butterflies and the buzzing of bees.
The walk is relatively easy, although the path can be quite hard to follow at times, and it was very overgrown for us. In fact, I wasn’t able to find any other references to this lookout spot online, so I don’t think it’s a well-trodden path at all!
The start point is where a farm track branches off from the road to Vradeto. We followed the track for a short while before reaching a very decrepit looking paddock. At this point, the path follows along the side of the mountain. The path is reasonably well defined at the point, just make sure you don’t follow the other path towards Vradeto.
The path continues to hug the hillside, with varied scenery and increasingly large rocky outcrops.
Eventually, the path reaches a hanging valley. To the left is a well-defined peak (with good views), and to the right a ridge. Even though the path isn’t well defined, the route descends into the valley through a lush meadow. At the bottom of the valley we kept to the right, and then right again up to a small ridge with a sign and a small cairn. This is the start of the Kakia Skala steps!
Even though the Kakia Skala stairway is called a “stairway”, it really isn’t a stairway. It’s nothing like the better-known (and engineered) Vradeto steps. In fact “Kakia Skala” roughly translates to “bad/hard stairway”. It is simply a path created by farmers and animal herders as a means of getting animals down to the valley for grazing, and for collecting firewood.
The descent from here was steep, overgrown and relatively difficult. Even though progress was slow, the views were wonderful. Luckily there wasn’t too far left to go. After descending for a few minutes we found a nice rock to in on to take in the view and eat some lunch.
The views
Route details
The route back was straightforward, and much faster now that we knew the route! If you’re interested in exploring Megas Lakkos and the Kakia Skala stairway for yourself, the walk is roughly a 7km return and I’ve mapped the route on AllTrails. You can walk the return route in around 2 hours, although we were much slower as we kept stopping to take in the scenery.