I refuse to die impaled on a cow’s horn after huffing and puffing my way up this mountain, I thought to myself when seven semi-wild domestic cows turned onto the hiking trail and plodded toward us. One particularly large and mean-looking cow stopped and eyed me fiercely while I scurried past.

“Has anyone ever been attacked by a cow?” I asked Adi, my guide for my day hike in Piatra Craiului.

“Not that I’ve ever heard of,” he replied nonchalantly. Ah, but he’s only worked for Piatra Craiului National Park for two years. Perhaps a cow attack is recorded every two-and-a-half years and the park is now due for its next cow attack.

Piatra Craiului has one of the most spectacular ridgelines in the Carpathian Mountains.

I quickened my pace to catch up to Adi, short for Adrian. Adi is not actually a park ranger. He’s officially in charge of procurement and public awareness at Piatra Craiului (pronounced Cry-ooh-loo-e) National Park in Romania, but since the park presently has only one park ranger, he and Bogdan, the digital mapmaker, are frequently called upon to lead guided trips.

For a guy who spends most of his day in the office he’s in great shape, and I struggled just to keep him in sight. The trail we followed was all uphill and very rocky. Adi told me it’s one of the park’s easier trails — though when I looked at the trail map I saw that it is actually marked as “moderate.”

Piatra Craiului (which is the name of the mountain on which the park is situated) encompasses 36,571 acres (14,800 hectares) of forest and alpine terrain. Adi says the park is one of the country’s most beautiful, and the mountain has “the most spectacular ridge in the Carpathian Mountains.” Hollywood apparently agrees, as many scenes from the movie Cold Mountain were filmed here.

Piatra Craiului National Park aims not just to protect the natural environment, but also the local traditional way of life. Two mountain villages are located in the park area, both dating back 1,000 years. Villagers’ cows roam the trails and their sheep graze the meadows.

I asked Adi if he minds the cows on the trails. In my mind they seem to be a nuisance, ripping up the trails with their hooves and leaving behind cow patties, an unexpected hazard to the unwary hiker. Adi was surprised by my question, and noted that the cows are an integral part of the park. They belong on the mountain just as much as the bears, wolves and lynxes that also live in the area.

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However, there have been conflicts between the park’s efforts to protect the natural environment and the desire to preserve the traditional shepherding lifestyle. The main problem has been overgrazing. Too many cows and sheep have been grazed on the mountain meadows.

Changing villagers’ attitudes about how many domestic animals should be allowed in the park is a slow and sometimes painful process, but the park expects the new generation of villagers to be more understanding.

We came across a member of the new generation about three-quarters of the way into our hike. After leaving the main forest trail behind and coming out onto a large meadow, we passed the first people of the day, a shepherd and his teenage daughter. Adi greeted them, and received a gruff greeting from the shepherd and a suspicious glare from the girl. I hope the others of her generation show more understanding.