Briksdalsbreen

From the Briksdal parking lot at the Fjellstove, the well-signed hiking trail to the glacier is nearly 3 km long. As always, hiking boots are better than any others, but here you can also hike with lighter footwear if you choose the route via the road. The easy route to the glacier tongue is "family-friendly" and feasible for everyone. About 150 meters of elevation must be overcome until you reach the glacier lake in upper Briksdal, where the Briksdalsbreen glacier tongue calves. The duration for the round trip from Fjellstove is less than two hours. So let's go! Already 550 m after the Fjellstove, you face the choice to take the road or hiking trail uphill? I recommend the hiking path uphill, which goes left up the slope 100 m before the waterfall. The hiking trail is considered a shortcut on the glacier route and is easy to walk. About 600 meters before the glacier lake, the Jostedalsbreen National Park begins. From here, you will no longer encounter the "troll mobiles," which have been driving here with their smelly diesel engines up to the national park boundary since 2003. Unfortunately, a few years ago, the better-suited, one-axle tourist glacier carriages, which were still pulled by horses up the mountain in 2001, were replaced. Once you reach the 420 m long glacier lake, you can walk a good stretch along the left side of the gray-green lake toward the glacier tongue before a warning sign prohibits further progress. The glacier has retreated sharply in recent years and was still much more impressive to us in 2001 than its appearance in 2003 and 2008. For the return journey, it is better to take the wide road to see the waterfall of the glacier stream in full beauty after the serpentines, and perhaps also photograph it.