Nižné Kozie pleso is the largest of the Kozie plesá lakes in the High Tatras — a tranquil cirque lake tucked behind a low moraine ridge on the eastern side of Mlynická Valley's third terrace. It is the kind of place that rewards every step of the climb with an overwhelming sense of mountain solitude.
Sitting at 1,941 m above sea level, the lake covers 7,800 m² and reaches a maximum depth of just 2.2 m. What it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in scenery: the rocky walls of Satan and Zadná Bašta rise to the east, a ridge running from Štrbský štít closes the view to the north, and the Solisko peaks with Bystré sedlo stretch to the west. In summer the clear water mirrors the granite crags; in autumn the surrounding slopes turn amber and rust; in winter the whole basin fills with deep snow and silence.
How to get thereThe lake's name dates back to 1877, when a natural history professor named Julius Geyer encountered such a large herd of chamois on its shore that he named it 'Gemsensee' — Lake of the Chamois. The Slovak word for chamois in folk tradition was simply 'koza' (goat), and that is how 'Kozie pleso' — the Goat Lake — was born.