View of the Northern Transfăgărășan Road

WARNING: What’s below (German language) is my comment from earlier times. In the meanwhile I got one picture report (bear) from a person who traveled there by car. Now (July 2022) I received a personal report (mouth to ear) from a reliable traveler who was there, hitchhiking or similar, just about two weeks ago. Several bears and puppies were on the road so a cyclist had to get an escort by a car, separating the bears from the bike. Downhill this might work, but uphill? I would definitely not go on that pass again! Transalpina about 100km west may still be ok, but I preferred the scenery of Transfagarasan ☹️. Von Süd nach Nord scheint mir angenehmer zu sein, als umgekehrt. Der KFZ-Verkehr auf der Südseite ist aufgrund der dünneren Besiedlung geringer. Feiertage/Wochenende bei gutem Wetter wegen des starken Ausflugsverkehrs aus Sibiu möglichst meiden!

On the south side, we also received a bear warning via text message, so we had to be careful. And there were actually bears very close to where we were. The bear danger shouldn't be underestimated (there are also YouTube videos about it).
By the way, the southern sections of the road are much worse than the north side.

I rode the pass yesterday. The pass normally doesn't open until the end of July, but it was still possible to get through by bike. There is a tunnel at the top with gates closed on both sides. Only small pedestrian doors were open. I also had to push my bike over snow several times. As a result, there was almost no car traffic. But there were a lot more bears. I saw 7 big ones with just as many cubs. They are right next to the road. If you drive slowly past them with as much distance as possible, they probably won't do anything.
But even though the landscape there is really uniquely beautiful, I wouldn't dare ride the pass again. It's really scary to drive 5m past such a huge animal without any protection.I saw most of the bears in the lower part on the south side. The alpine part, above the tree line, seems to be mostly bear-free.