Date: 8/31/2022
Length: 13.41 mi
Elev. gain: 2949 ft
Time: 6 hrs 2 mins
The hike:
https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/afternoon-hike-at-trolltunga-e0f19f6
Trolltunga is a rock formation in Norway that translates to “Troll’s Tongue” in English. It’s one of Norway’s most popular hikes. It’s so famous that my sister and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to visit it while we were in Bergen.
But hiking Trolltunga was not cheap. Since it’s about 3 1/2 hrs drive and ferry ride from Bergen, and we’d like to start early to avoid crowds as well as finish early so we could get back to Bergen before dark, we had to spend the night at a hotel (expensive) nearby. Adding the costs of a rental car, gas, tolls (There were numerous tunnels and some of them had tolls. But we had no idea which ones), ferry rides, parking (We parked at P3 which was closest and would save us at least an hour of uphill hike), tolls for the road to P3 …, we spent over $500 just to do the hike.
We stayed in the nearby town of Tyssedal for the night and checked out when it was still dark and drove to P2. But the toll road to P3 wasn’t open yet (We wanted to be the first in line). Once the road was open, we drove the winding road uphill to P3 and started our hike from there.
It was about two miles of uphill climb but it wasn’t so bad compared to a lot of other hikes we had done. After that, the trail ran mostly parallel to a cliff and we were able to enjoy views of Ringedalsvatnet (the lake below) frequently.
Here it is. There were a little more hikers there than I expected. But most people were just on the side taking in the scenery. So it was pretty quick to get our turn for pictures. But being afraid of heights, I didn’t have the gut to sit at the tip of the “tongue” like most people. I was happy just to take some pictures standing close to the edge.
It was time to hike back.
On the way back, we saw a crowd gathered at the cliff looking out. We got curious and thought it might be some nice viewpoints. So we decided to go check it out. It turned out to be someone walking the tightrope.
After that, we continued our return hike.
We finished the hike in about six hours.
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