Hardangervidda

Here I've gathered some pictures from various parts of the Hardangervidda mountain plateau. It is the largest of its kind in Europe, and also hosts the continent's largest number of wild reindeer. The oldest rocks found up there are more than a billion years old.

This is from lake Sysenvatnet. It is a water reservoir for a power plant, and the little stream that trickles from the rocky dam joins with other streams to become the raging waters of Vøringsfossen. They actually have to let out a minimum amount of water during the tourist months so that the waterfall doesn't look all pathetic. The glacier in the back is Hardangerjøkulen, the 6th largest glacier in Norway. Areas of it was used to film "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" where it represented the ice planet Hoth.


View from the dam (you can just see it on the extreme right of the picture) down towards Vøringsfossen and the west coast.


Typical mountain plateau vegetation just east of the dam. The plateau is still home to tens of thousands of sheep in the summer months.


Another mountain stream that feeds into Vøringsfossen. There are innumerable water bodies from streams and tiny ponds to fairly large lakes on the plateau.


More from the glacier Hardangerjøkulen.


From the eastern ends of Hardangervidda.