# Driving North from Nikšić: Piva Canyon, Sedlo Pass & the Durmitor Highlands

> A route guide to the drive north from Nikšić, Montenegro — the Piva Lake canyon road, Prutaš, Sedlo Pass at 1,907 m, and the katun shepherd huts of the high plateau.

- Source: https://clevertourists.com/guides/niksic-to-durmitor-drive
- Authors: Evan & Clara, Clever Tourists (first-hand, from a 526-day trip across 20 countries)
- Published: 2026-09-08

The road north out of Nikšić is the one most visitors to Montenegro never drive. It leaves the plain, climbs into a limestone country of shepherd huts and glacial tarns, threads a canyon above a reservoir the colour of antifreeze, and tops out on the highest paved pass in the country. It can be done in a long day from Nikšić, but the interesting parts are all on the sections where you'd want to stop.

## Nikšić to Piva and the Durmitor Ring

The route from Nikšić north to Piva Lake and over Sedlo Pass into Durmitor — tunnels cut through canyon walls, a 220-metre dam, and a high plateau of katun huts and limestone peaks.

Plužine is about 65 kilometres northwest of Nikšić, and the last stretch of the approach is the reason to go: the road runs along the wall of the Piva canyon, ducking through dozens of short unlit tunnels blasted straight into the rock, with the reservoir far below on your left. Piva Lake is artificial — the Mratinje Dam, a 220-metre concrete arch built between 1971 and 1976, flooded 45 kilometres of the Piva river valley to a maximum depth of 188 metres. The old town of Plužine is on the bottom of it. The Piva Monastery, with 16th-century frescoes, was cut from its original site and moved 3.5 kilometres uphill in a salvage operation that ran from 1969 to 1982, and the seams where the stone was reassembled are still visible inside. The water is an implausible turquoise, and there is nowhere on this road with a railing where you won't want to pull over.

From Plužine the P14 climbs east toward Žabljak, roughly 50 kilometres of narrow two-lane road that is regularly down to one lane in practice — meet an oncoming car on a blind corner and one of you reverses. It crosses Sedlo Pass at 1,907 metres, the highest paved road in Montenegro, and the plateau on either side is the best of the drive: bare golden grass over limestone, shallow glacial tarns, and the striped grey face of Prutaš, whose near-vertical rock striations look like something raked down the mountainside. Scattered through the pastures are katuns, the timber shepherd huts still used for summer grazing, some in clusters of five or six with sheet-metal roofs and no road access. The pass is normally open from May to October and can hold snow into mid-June; there is no fuel between Plužine and Žabljak, and long stretches with no phone signal at all.

Highlights:

- The Piva canyon road — dozens of short unlit tunnels cut into the cliff face above the turquoise reservoir between Nikšić and Plužine.
- Mratinje Dam — a 220-metre arch dam completed in 1976, among the highest in Europe, holding back a lake 45 kilometres long.
- Prutaš — the striped limestone peak above the Durmitor plateau, its face scored with near-vertical rock striations.
- Sedlo Pass — at 1,907 metres the highest paved road in Montenegro, crossing the open plateau between Plužine and Žabljak.

- **Best time to go:** June through September. Sedlo can stay under snow into mid-June after a heavy winter, and the plateau grass turns gold from late August, which is when the light up there is best.
- **Tip:** Fill the tank in Nikšić and again in Plužine or Žabljak — there is no fuel on the pass, the tunnels are unlit and narrow enough that headlights on is not optional, and a hire car with a small engine will struggle on the sustained climbs.
- **What to eat:** Stop in Plužine for fresh trout from the lake, or buy smoked cheese and kajmak from a roadside stand on the plateau, sold by the same families who keep the katuns.
- **Where to stay:** Use Nikšić as a base if you're driving the route as a day loop; stay in Plužine or Žabljak if you want to be on the plateau for morning light.