The Verkhovynskyi Vododilnyi Ridge is one of the most rewarding mountain ranges in the Eastern Beskids, stretching along the border of the Zakarpattia and Lviv regions in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Running from the headwaters of the Uzh and San rivers all the way to the upper Rika valley — between Uzhok Pass and Torun Pass — this ridge offers sweeping highland scenery, ancient trade routes, and a genuine sense of wilderness.
The ridge has a strikingly asymmetric profile: its southern slopes are steep and rugged, while the northern flanks descend gently through spruce-beech forests that cover the hillsides up to about 1200–1250 m. Above the treeline, open alpine meadows called 'polonyny' take over — including the well-known Bukovetska Polonyna — carpeted with mat-grass, bilberry shrubs and low thickets. In summer the panoramas stretch toward distant peaks; in autumn the forests turn brilliant gold. The main Carpathian watershed runs along the ridge crest, which means that raindrops falling here flow either toward the Black Sea or the Baltic — a quiet but remarkable geographical fact.
How to reach the ridgeFor centuries the Ruska Put pass on this ridge served as a key Carpathian trade and pastoral route — today hikers follow in the footsteps of merchants and shepherds who crossed these mountains long before modern maps existed.