A high alpine road 48 kilometers long with 36 hair pin bends and an altitude climb of 2500mts the Grossglockner High Alpine Road is the highest road in Austria. With statistics so tall we had to lay down the rubber and we started off in a cozy car from Salzburg. True to the claims, it was all winding roads with steep hairpin turns and sharp descents.
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| Our ride for the trip |
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| Curvy you ask, yes you got it |
But as we drove towards the alps on a late afternoon, the forecast looked shaky. A chance of showers in the evening, thunderstorms the next day. The part we like when rain and sun play hide and seek is rainbows and our eyes shined with glee seeing one along the way. Even better was witnessing the double arc of colours. A high point on the road trip.
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| Rainbows are amazing |
Driving towards Kaiser-Franz-Josefs Höhe, we could see a multi tiered waterfall in a distance and stopped by for a quick hike to get closer to it. It was even more visually stunning up close, flowing down from the sharp peaks covered mostly in fog. It would have made for a perfect picnic spot if not for the rain that had been chasing us all the time.
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| Cascading waterfall we hiked to |
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| Wildflowers at lower elevations |
The Hohe tauern high alpine road ends at the visitor center and brings visitors to the foot of Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria. If one were to squint and try hard, they could see climbers on their way to summiting the peaks of these eastern alps.
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| One of the best views in Hohe tauern national park |
We drove down to the valley to the town of Heiligenblut. A postcard perfect town complete with a gothic church, a tiny town square and petite cafes. It was a sleepy village with no traffic at all. But it turns into a ski paradise in winters with a cable car taking high into the alpine wonderland.
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| Heiligenblut is a perfect town with great views of the Austrian alps |
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| View from our chalet in Heiligenblut |
The next day,we took this cable car from Heiligenblut to get to the top of Schareck situated at a height of 2600 mts. Yeah its a bit of cheat to get to that elevation within minutes, but isn’t that the best part about hiking in alps. Off the chair and we were walking a narrow ridge with a beautiful valley on one side and the alpine tundras on the other. Not a single person was in sight. The dwarf shrubs and misty rain gave us company throughout the hike.
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| Best way is to explore on foot |
The weather showed no signs of getting better and with thunderstorms predicted for later part of the day we shelved our plans of hiking at higher altitudes. Instead, we set off to explore Pasterze glacier, at a length of over 8 kms it is the longest in Austria. From this massive glacier emerged the peaks of hohe tauern range soaring high up into the sky. The glacier like most across the world has been receding. A walk to get down to the tongue is truly like stepping into time with sign boards displaying the glacier position in previous years.
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| Pasterze glacier |
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| Icebergs floating over glacial water |
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| Mineral blues looking into the glacier |
After a fun filled weekend in the alps we drove back to Salzburg. The drive in the mountains was exciting with hairpins, fast turns, some straights, some cows and lots of sheep. Some stretches went by with visibilities of few meters but we made it back safely and in time for our flight back.
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| Sunset over Grossglockner |
There is a huge toll slapped on to use the road especially the non regulars. The toll fee is reimbursed partly or fully if you stay overnight at any of the hotels along the road or in the valley below depending on duration of stay. Another option is to get the national park kärnten card which gives unbelievable discounts on the tolls and cable cars.
Hi my name is Loraine and I just wanted to drop you a quick note here instead of calling you. I really enjoy reading all your adventure filled blogs 🙂