The area we studied with our students lied in the north of the Pădurea Craiului Mountains, in the Crişul Repede Gorges, on the territory of Şumcuiuş and Vadu Crişului commune. The area is located in the north-west of the Apuseni Mountains; respectively in the north of Pădurea Craiului Mountains and is easily accessible from the road E60 from Oradea or Cluj. This area is a protected natural area, because there are many natural elements that attract tourists (caves, waterfalls, doline, clints and others). The most famously is Izbîndişul, the cascade from Vadu Crişului; this is one of the most important objectives of this area. With the remarkable touristic potential, that area of Romania was literally invaded by tourists no matter the season. Because of chaotic touristic activities, as well as because of the economic ones, landscape underwent obvious degradation. That was why the study trips and the field trips that we organized with our students have not only the purpose of studying endo-and exokarstic form, but also the impact of touristic activities upon that area. Moreover, as textbooks did not pay much attention to karst related processes and phenomena in general; we considered that such activities had a significant role in completing student’s knowledge without neglecting the recreational part. The results of our activity were in the form of albums, papers, Power-Point presentations. This paper presents the reference, operational and framework objectives of this educational trip and are described the most important three objectives from this area: Crişul Repede Gorge, Izbucul and Izbîndişului Valley and Crişul Repede Gorge.

karst, exokarst, endokarst, landscape

Presentation: oral