Trolltunga is one of the most popular tourist hiking attraction in Norway, if not the most popular. It is located Southeast of Bergen, near Odda. The entire trail is 14KM one way with moderate elevation gain. There are few parking lots near Trolltunga trail head. In general, there are 3 parking lot. P1 parking lot is at way bottom and people most definitely should avoid parking the car at P1. P1 is very far from the actual trail head and need to take bus to the actual trail head. P2 is where most people park. It is right at Trolltunga trail head and the hike would be 14KM from P2. Then there is P3 parking lot that is located 4KM up the trail. So some people park car at P3 to save themselves from hiking 4KM. However, there is shuttle bus from P2 to P3 after 6AM.
Usually people suggest to stay near Odda when doing this hike. However, we definitely think going from Bergen as a day trip is doable. Trolltunga is only 3 hours away from Bergen.
We were staying at Bergen for 4 nights in total to wait for the perfect weather to hike Trolltunga. Unfortunately, the weather has been bad during the day at Trolltunga. On the very last day, we could not wait any longer and decided to do this hike very early in the day. We left Bergen at 1AM in the morning to drive to Trolltunga. Since the ferry was not operational until 5AM, we took the land route and going through the tunnels in the mountains. The tunnels in the mountains were so pretty with rainbow colors at the round about inside the tunnel. We have never seen anything like that!
We got to P2 parking lot by 4AM in the morning. The cost to park there is 500NKR for 24 hours. By the time we got there, there were already a few people there ready for the hike as well. Also, although it was 4AM early in the morning, the day was already bright enough for the hike.
We started hiking on the trail and the first park was going up the road that goes to P3. We finished the first 4KM up the road within an hour and started on the real trail. There was only 10KM left from there. The good thing was that there was marker every 1KM. In addition, there were red "T" markers on the trail to ensure that we were on the right path.
The trail was not difficult, but there were hills along the trail which led us to climb up and climb down all the time. A large portion of trail was hiking on the hard granite rocks, that also hurt our knee a lot.
At the final 1KM of the trail, we could see stacked rock indicating that we were almost there. There were also signs stating that we were at Trolltunga and make sure we take garbage back down to the car.
We got to Trolltunga by 7:30AM, so finished the trail in around 3.5 hours. When we got there, there was not that many people. There was no line up at the Trolltunga rock. We were able to take so many photos there. We also met people from different places by taking photos for them.
To climb down to the Trolltunga rock, there were metallic rods that people could step on to get down to the rock. It could be slippery since it does rain quite often there. The rock itself is quite wide as well. So people do not need to fear of falling off the rock.
We stayed at Trolltunga for about an hour and the wind started to blow hard. It was starting to get quite cold and the cloud was coming in. Thus we left Trolltunga around 8:30AM to head back down to the car. While we were heading back, it actually started raining and we were glad that we went early. Along the way, we also saw many people who only carried 1 bottle of water. This is not recommended. We recommend to carry at least 2L of water and wear layers of clothes to keep the body warm.
Overall, we loved this hike. It was very different. The entire ground around Trolltunga is kept untouched and stayed at its original form. The scenery was just beautiful. We would definitely go again when we head back to Norway for vacation next time!
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