Wysokie Bereście (894 m a.s.l.) is a quietly captivating summit in the north-eastern part of the Leluchów Range — an isolated massif that stands apart from the main ridge, paired only with its neighbour Bereście (869 m). If you are looking for a peaceful forest hike with a touch of forgotten history, this is your place.
The peak serves as a key junction point, sending three ridges out in different directions: south-west towards Bereście, north-west, and east. Each ridge cradles its own valley and stream — the Pusta stream, a tributary of the Pusta (flowing through the so-called Borsucza Valley), and the Zimny stream. The landscape is densely forested and wonderfully wild. Autumn turns the hillsides into a blaze of gold and russet, spring fills the woods with fresh scents, and winter brings thick snow to the ridges. Along the eastern ridge, a long open glade once stretched across the hilltop — visible on older maps — but since the forced resettlement of the Lemko people in 1947, the forest has reclaimed it completely.
How to reach the summitAt the very top, the administrative boundaries of three villages meet: Wojkowa, Tylicz, and Muszynka — all within Nowy Sącz County, Lesser Poland. Standing here among the silent trees, it is easy to feel the ghost of the Lemko villages that once filled these valleys, their memory now buried beneath the slowly returning forest.