Visit Albania .guide
The boardwalk down to the small blue spring pool in the gorge above NderlysaAI image

Albanian Alps · hike

The Blue Eye of Theth

A long out-and-back up the Shala river to a cold blue spring pool, and a different walk depending on whether you start in Theth or at Ndërlysa.

October: avoid. Guesthouses closing, and the light goes early in the gorge.

The year · October is underlined

The Blue Eye of Theth: viability by month
RegionJFMAMJJASOND
The Blue Eye of Theth

The walk

Distance10 km
Ascent300 m
Time4.5 h
TrackGPX in preparation

Dated facts · every figure carries the day it was checked

WhatValueChecked
The road in, in winterNo published closure dates. The road authority (ARRSH) clears snow and closes the road when it is unsafe; avalanches blocked it completely on 5 February 20262026-10-01 · Top Channel, ARRSH: Qafë Thorë to Theth road fully blocked by avalanches (5 February 2026)
Getting to the trailheadShuttle from Shkodër 07:30 and 14:00 from Hotel Rozafa, about 2 hours; the operator publishes no fare2026-10-01 · Koman Lake Ferry, Shkodër to Theth shuttle

The Blue Eye is a spring pool in the gorge above Ndërlysa, cold enough that most people get in once and then get out. Getting to it is the day: about 10 km there and back with 300 m of climbing, four to five hours at a walking pace, and a last half hour on rock and wooden ladders beside the water.

Where you start changes the walk more than anything else does. From Theth village it is the full distance along the river track, which is a decent walk in its own right. Most people take a vehicle down the rough track to Ndërlysa and walk up from there, which turns the day into a couple of hours, and it is why two visitors can give completely different accounts of the same trip.

It is worth checking the water before committing. In late spring the crossings on the approach can be high enough to be a nuisance, and the pool is at its most saturated blue once the melt has passed, in high summer and early autumn.

Nearby

The stone church of Theth on the valley floor beneath the limestone walls of the Radohima massifAI imageThethA stone-church village on the floor of the Albanian Alps, at the end of a paved road that snow can close all winter.The Grunas fall dropping over a limestone lip into its plunge pool below ThethAI imageGrunas WaterfallThe short walk out of Theth, about two and a half hours to the fall and back, and the one to do on an arrival day.The worn path climbing open ground below the 1,795 m pass between the Valbone and Theth valleysAI imageValbonë to ThethThe crossing between the two Alps valleys over a 1,795 m pass, walkable for about four months of the year and shut for the rest of them.