Apart from the Kjendallsbreen you can visit a lot of glacier arms of the Jostedalsbreen in the area of Loen (Sogn og Fjordane). Last summer my boyfriend and I visited the Kjenndalsbreen, Lovatnet and decided to top our day off with a visit to the Bødalsbreen! To us this was the most alien glacier arm we had visited in the area. Keep on reading to find out why!
A walk to the Bødalsbreen takes about 45 minutes. There is almost no difference in height, so it’s very easy to walk. The route is also very safe, so you can easily walk it with (young) children. Starting from the valley it’s a half an hour drive to the parking lot. The small mountain road is a bit hard to drive, since you almost can’t pass other cars and there are loose rocks everywhere. You can also run into some sheep, so be careful and don’t drive too fast!
How do you get to the Bødalsbreen?
Look at the instructions in the article of the Kjendallsbreen on how to get to the Kjenndalstova.
From the restaurant on you can take the first road to your right. Make sure you bring some cash money to pay toll! And pay close attention, because there is no address for you navigation. You have to read the signs and follow them! Be careful when driving up the steep mountain road but keep driving on this road until you get to the parking lot. From there on you can follow the signs and famous blood red T’s that mark the trail all the way up to the glacier. Watch out for the sheep! They will NOT move out of your way. You have to move around them!
Our experience
From the parking lot to the Bødalsbreen is a 5,5 kilometer walk. If you walk a bit fast, you can make it in 45 minutes. You start the trip with a little walk through a meidow. Watch where you put your feet, because there might be some poo lying around! Take the big U-turn and cross the water by taking the wooden bridge. After the bridge you walk straight into a little forrest! Which is really pretty.
We really enjoyed walking the path through the little forrest. You have to walk over little streams, step some stones, stoop for a branch here and there and watch where you put your feet, but that makes it a little more adventurous! The walk isn’t heavy at all. It’s super easy going.
After half an hour you get out of the little forrest and walk straight into an open valley. You’ll get an amazing view right away. You’ll see mountains, the Skålebreen glacier, waterfalls, ice, snow, trees, some flowers and you can already see the Bødalsbreen in the distance! I really love the mountain-grass contrast in these pictures.
It is unbelievable how a view clouds can have such a huge effect on a landscape. Look at the contrast between the pictures we took of the Kjendallsbreen in comparison with the Bødalsbreen! And even the pictures from our roadtrip along the Lovatnet have different colors. It’s so cool how many faces Norway has. She keeps on surprising us!
In terms of beauty the Bødalsbreen has a hard time competing with the Kjenndalsbreen, but then again it’s not really fair to compare the two. The Kjenndalsbreen outshined because of the waterfall, the sunshine and all the aspects that make Norway super pretty. But the Bødalsbreen made us feel like we were on a totally different planet! It felt like we were walking on the moon!
You run into these warning signs at almost every glacier in Norway. Please take them seriously and don’t go past these signs. You’ll find yourself in some very dangerous surroundings if you do and some serious stuff might happen to you. Please use your head and be careful! Don’t do anything stupid.
While we had a lot of sunshine earlier that day, the sun abandoned us when we arrived to the foot of the Bødalsbreen. Dark clouds started to appear and a very cold, harsh wind began to blow.
We decided to head back to the car and keep a firm pace to avoid the rain.
We were about 500 meters away from the car when it started to rain. We couldn’t resist to go see these rapids though. It is super impressive how much noise the water makes!
Once we got back to the car we changed into some dry clothes, had a snack and something to drink and drove back to the Lodalen valley. We saw so many amazing things on one day, we had a lot to process.
Have you ever visited one of the glaciers in the area of Lodalen? Or are they on your wishlist? Please share your story in the comments below!
