Drops of Norway - Hikes & Views

As mentioned in the previous post, I went to Norway a few weeks back and did a whole bunch of hiking in just a few days in the beautiful western region of the country. I have already told you all about the Kjerag Boulder, which was the hardest of the 3 hikes we did, but the other two were by no means any less impressive! The two im talking about now are Preikestolen and Trolltunga. The reason I named this post “Drops of Norway”, is because both of these hikes lead to a viewpoint with a SERIOUS drop. Preikestolen has a straight drop of 604m and Trolltunga a drop of around 1000m – the crazy thing is, both of these spots are known for their photo opportunities when getting right out to the edge of the spots!

kjerag boulder

Both are must do hikes when visiting west Norway in my opinion, both very accomplishable yet very different. The easiest is by far Preikestolen and is visited by over 100,000 people every year! When you see it from the the fjord below (see video), its quite sketchy and makes you think it could crack off any minute, but apparently the geological research has been done and its ‘solid as a rock’… (pun intended) for a lack of better expressions haha! Preikestolen is a very managable hike, and you’ll see people of all ages and sizes doing this hike, as it is AWESOME considering its level of hiking experience needed (next to none). It will take 1-2hours up all depending on your fitness level and stamina, and 1-1.5 hours down!

not a small drop down! 604m straight down

Once you get to the top, whether you struggled or not, it is SO worth it! With uninterrupted views of lysefjorden in both directions, you’re blessed with the pinnacle of norwegian mountain views! Make sure to get the photos from all the right angles to get the scale, and it is worth it staying up there for long enough to get the rock for yourself so you can leave with some awesome photo memories!

fjord views in all directions

Next on the list is Trolltunga, also known as the trolls tongue, with very good reason! This hike is one for the books, honestly, such an amazing journey the entire way! Technically it starts at the carpark (park 2) which is a 4km walk up a winding concrete road, which most people opt out of by taking the shuttle bus up to the start of the actual mountainous trekking. This is in my opinion worth it, we took it up but ended up walking down instead of getting the shuttle back down, just because we had already done so much, may aswell complete it! This hike is about 24-26km long all depending on how you approach the route. Despite skipping the first 4km on the way up, we still ended up walking 26km that day on the hike.

Squad goals for this hike

If you skip the concrete road, then it starts flat for 1km, then its fairly steep for the next 2km or so, whereafter there are some bits that are up and down, but in general it’s a super enjoyable trek with incredible views along the way! You will have Ringedalsvatnet, a gorgeous lake, In your sights throughout a large portion of the trek, and when you don’t you will be able to see plenty of glacier lakes having formed from snowmelt (depending on the time of year of course)! This is quite a long journey, so even though its not super challenging the entire time, make sure to bring enough snacks/food to keep you energized! Water is not so much an issue as you can drink any water you see on the mountains more or less! I was filling up my waterbottle at small falls and streams along the way to the hike, the quality of the water here is amazing!

you could even fill up your bottle at this glacier lake near the mountain top, but there are so many streams along the way that are so inviting to sip from!

When you make it over to the viewpoint, you will quickly understand what all the fuss is about – good heavens is this place unique and spectacular! I have never in my life seen anything even remotely similar to this – I have been to hikes with drop offs and large drops in general, but Trolltunga (aka. The troll’s tongue) stantds out on a way of its own. Yet another one of those “how the hell does this work” moments, but when you head out onto the platform, you forget about those thoughts immediately and realise its just another piece of rock to walk on! And of course, the photos you can take here speak for themselves!

the drop here is reaaaaal! So so beautiful though!

I highly recommend a trip to the western region of Norway as I thought it was incredibly beautiful and I can only imagine I will be returning again soon because it was just too good to only shoot once! Happy adventuring friends!