I am always very impressed by rock formations created by mother nature over thousands of years. The Stone Mushrooms near the village of Beli Plast are one of these natural phenomenons. They are also known as Rock Mushrooms.
Stone Mushrooms are located on the road between the towns of Haskovo and Kardzhali. After you pass the village of Beli Plast you should continue about 1 km up the road and the rock phenomenon will appear in the right side if you are coming from Haskovo.
The Mushrooms are formed by rolit volcanic tuffs. At the base the Rock Mushrooms have blue and black spots due to manganese nodules. The hats are green and the stalks are pinkish, which again is due to the different minerals in the rocks here.
The Rock Mushrooms
The area around The Stone Mushrooms (about 3 ha) was declared a natural landmark. This whole area is fenced with barbed wire, and there is a small gate, which is always open and anyone can visit the site.
Unfortunately, everything is pretty broken-down and unsupported. As The Stone Mushrooms are located in quite a distance from the nearby cities, to have a constant security on site.
Stone mushrooms themselves are unique. Makes you wonder what mother nature is capable of – destructive cataclysms which blossom into amazing natural attractions. Sometimes it is even hard to believe that they were not made by human hands.
In fact, my main idea for this visit of The Stone Mushrooms was to photograph them at night and possibly to catch the Milky Way on the background. Since I had already visited the area before and also there are a lot of pictures of the Rock mushrooms, I wanted to do something different. Unfortunately I am not satisfied with the result, because did not execute correctly the photos technical wise. But since this is my first time doing night photography I hope next time there will be an improvement 🙂
