Trollstigen

The final post from my September drive to the west coast is from one of the most visited tourist spots in Norway: Trollstigen (Troll's ladder). It is a serpentine drive down a tall, steep mountain side down into a narrow valley, with tall mountains on three sides. The view is breathtaking and not a little scary from the top, where there is a viewing platform. Just behind that, there's a tourist center with shops, toilets and a cafe.

These sheep were trotting alongside the road.


This is one of the two main waterfalls coming down the Trollstigen area.


Here's where it disappears off the edge.


And this is where my brain was going "I'm gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie, fuck, fuck, fuck!".


I held on to that thought for some time.


Here I was breathing again. The road, btw has 11 hairpin turns, all named for the road crew that worked that particular turn back in the 1930s.


Actually, since the valley twists and turns, it looks like you've got mountains on all four sides.


Coming down the hill gives you some stunning views though.


The main waterfall coming down. The Norwegian word for a waterfall is "foss".


The other large one is a little further down the edge. From what I can recall, they both cross under the road. One is called Stigfossen, the other Trollfossen.


The view from the relative safety of the valley floor. Notice the RV in front; these hellmachines have gone from being a mainly German nuisance on narrow, west coast roads to near ubiquitous as Norwegians have started to buy them in great numbers too. They're starting to clog up every road in the country, because fuck forbid people can't drag their house with them when on vacation. /rant


Very pretty.