An Epic Norwegian Road Trip Part 3: Wild Water at Reinheimen

After leaving the cabin at Vågåmo, we had a clear destiantion in mind - Geiranger.

Geiranger is a famous fjord destination and supposed to be very beautiful and nice to visit. So we weren't really planning to do much with the day other than get there.

But then we stumbled upon Reinheimen National Park.

I had almost forgotten that Norway is full of so many beautiful spots that it's often the lesser known ones that impress you the most. I guess it's because you don't expect to find them, but they end up being just as beautiful as the tourist spots, but without all the tourists.

It’s almost like it doesn’t matter where you go when you're in fjord country. You certainly don’t have to go to the tourist spots – Geiranger, Trolltunga, Preikestolen, etc. – although those places of course are amazing.

You just have to keep your eyes open and take the most unexpected turns every now and then.

That’s how we found Reinheimen.

Norway has a lot of water, and a countless number of waterfalls. I've discussed that before. On this trip, we had already driven by several amazing-looking waterfalls, so I thought we should finally stop and check one out.

Lucky for us, this was a good one to check out!

Reinheimen National Park is rathernew - founded only in 2006. However, it is the third largest national park on the Norwegian mainland, behind only Hardangervidda and Saltfjellet/Svartisen.

At the entrance area that we explored, it was more so a rushing river than a waterfall, but regarless, it was beautiful! This thing really had some power behind it. Summer in this region still means snowmelt in the mountainsides, and you could really tell it by the sheer amount of water careening through the canyon.

One of the first amazing sites was a standing wave caused by the water blasting up against a large boulder, which can be seen in the middle of this photo:

The color of the water here was phenominal. That is, in the areas calm enough to see more than just whitewater. To me, it was every bit as beautiful as those teal blues you see in the Mediterranean and other such coastal areas, but with a tint all of its own. I don't know if the shade fully comes out in the video, but I still think it looks pretty nice!

I sure wish we had more time to explore here, as there were surely way more amazing things than just the small bit that we got to see. But, as I mentioned, we had a travel destination in mind, and that was the topic of my next post:

Geiranger