Rožok is a small patch of very old forest on the eastern edge of Slovakia, close to the borders with Poland and Ukraine, and it is one of the components of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a World Heritage Site that stretches across many countries. Here, on a steep slope above the Starina reservoir, beech trees have grown undisturbed for centuries, some of them huge, with smooth grey trunks and wide canopies, and fallen trees lie rotting on the forest floor, feeding fungi, insects and birds.
It is part of the Poloniny national park, the most remote and least populated corner of Slovakia, where the mountains roll away in long, forested ridges and meadows called poloniny open up on the summits. Wolves, bears and lynx live in the forests, and European bison have been reintroduced. The area is also rich in wooden churches, built by the Rusyn communities who lived here for centuries, and many villages were abandoned when the Starina reservoir was built in the 1980s to supply drinking water to eastern Slovakia.
The roads here are narrow, quiet and winding, following valleys between the forested hills. From Snina, the road leads past the reservoir towards Stakčín and the villages near the Ukrainian border, with little traffic apart from the occasional truck carrying timber. The surfaces can be rough, with potholes and gravel, and the roads become narrower and steeper in the hills. The forest is beautiful in autumn, when the beech trees turn golden, and spring brings a carpet of wildflowers.
Snina, roughly twenty kilometres back towards the west, is the last place with a proper filling station and supermarket; beyond it the villages offer a shop, a pub and a lot of silence, so arrive with a full tank. The forest itself can be visited on a marked trail, which is steep in places but rewarding. Remember that this is a protected area, and stick to the marked trails and respect the rules of the park.