Vøringsfossen, perhaps Norway’s most famous waterfall?

A view of Vøringsfossen from Fossli

On my three day road trip this summer I went by Vøringsfossen. This is perhaps Norway’s most famous waterfall. The view from Fossli is spectacular, but I wanted to go down the gorge and see it from that angle as well. The information said to wear good hiking boots, and I quickly understood why. The hike is graded as challenging (red).

Vøringsfossen is one of several waterfalls that cascades down from the Hardangervidda mountain plateu and into a valley below. Vøringsfossen is crashing down into Måbødalen in Eidfjord and the biggest fall is 163 meters high, in total the water falls down 182 meters. It is a mighty view and has been a tourist attraction since 1821 when it first was put on the map for the outside world by an astronomer named Christoffer Hansteen (a Norwegian). He thought it was the most fantastic waterfall he had ever seen. And word quickly spread and so the tourist started to come for a visit.

The stream of tourists was so great that they built a café with beds for 5-6 persons to spend the night. It was an old hut for smoking meat and fish that two men moved from the farm Garatun. It was later moved again and became a general store. While it was near the bottom of Vøringsfossen it was called Fossastovo – the waterfall hut.

Mobile photo of the poster by the remains, sorry for the poor quality.

This is what is left of Fossastovo today, the foundation wall.

I started my hike at Storegjel, there isn’t much room there so you have to start early if you want to park at this spot. Otherwise Fossatromma is an option, but then the hike will be a bit longer. The path down is quite rocky and when I went down with two of my dogs there was a couple of trees in the way as well. Part of the path is climbing through an old rockfall. This part would be way easier without the dogs though. I went as far as the bridge across the river at the bottom of Vøringsfossen, but didn’t cross and walk all the way in on slippery rocks. Parts of the reason why is that my camera gave out so I lost a bit of my motivation to do so.
Oh well, it’s not that far away from home, about 4 hours by car, so I will make another trip at another time.

A bit of big rock navigation… Follow the red arrows!

Here, but no further. At least for this time. I will visit another time, and make sure my camera function properly to get better photos!

This is what Vøringsfossen looked like from where I stopped this day. Still a mighty view!

The top photo is from Fossli, unfortunately my timing was not good as the bridge that would have given an even better view was closed. It has reopened now.

I will be back, but I do not know when. If possible I’ll stay clear of the main tourist season.