THE HONEST STATUS
After the Fire: What's Open in Bohemian Switzerland Now
The 2022 wildfire, what actually burned, when the gorge boats reopened, and the honest current state of the arch, the trails and the recovery landscape.
See Bohemian Switzerland tours on GetYourGuide ↗What happened in 2022
In late July 2022 a wildfire broke out in Bohemian Switzerland and, fanned by extreme heat, drought and wind, spread into one of the largest in modern Czech history before it was declared out around mid-August. Thousands of firefighters rotated through, several hundred people were evacuated from Hřensko and Mezná, and the damage ran to hundreds of millions of crowns. For a couple of seasons afterwards, a lot of would-be visitors simply assumed the park was gone. It isn't — but the picture is more nuanced than either 'destroyed' or 'fine', and it's worth getting right before you plan a day around it.
The scenery survived — rock doesn't burn
The single most important fact is that the fire burned forest, not stone. The Pravčická brána arch, the Kamenice gorges and the sandstone towers that are the whole reason to come are all intact and open; they were never going to burn. So the fear behind the most-asked question — is there anything left to see? — is misplaced. The marquee landscape is fully there. What changed is the forest around it and, for a while, access to parts of it.
The gorge boats: closed three years, back since July 2025
The biggest casualty for visitors was the Kamenice gorge boat ride, which shut for nearly three years. It reopened — the Edmund's Gorge trips specifically — on 19 July 2025, but under new rules: a daily visitor cap, in-person ticketing at the Hřensko centre, mandatory guided access, and regular rockfall monitoring, because the fire loosened some of the cliff rock above the water. This is the one detail on the whole subject that changes season to season, so treat any fixed claim about the boats — including this one — as something to double-check against a current source before you travel.
Trails, reroutes and a new lookout
Access reopened gradually rather than all at once. Parts of the direct approach from Hřensko and the historic Gabriele's-path corridor were damaged and rerouted, with alternative marked trails signed and in use; by the 2024 season around 150 kilometres of marked trails were back open. The park also built a new viewing platform on the Mlýnská cesta trail specifically to let visitors look out over the burned-and-regrowing forest — a deliberate decision to make the recovery part of the experience rather than something to hide.
What it looks like today
Expect a recovery landscape, not a moonscape: stands of standing dead pine over vigorous young green regrowth on the burned hillsides, alongside large areas the fire never touched. A reforestation programme with native species is under way. Many visitors find the burn-and-regrowth country genuinely interesting to walk through, and because tourism dropped after the fire and is still recovering, the park is quieter now than it was at its pre-2022 peak — a small silver lining for anyone who'd rather not share the arch with a crowd.
More things to do nearby
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