Hiking Route in the Dolomites: Mountains and Cliffs.
The third day of our hikes in the Dolomites was the hardest and the longest, but also the most breathtaking and the most interesting.
From Bolzano, we went to Selva di Val Gardena (about an hour and a half by bus), and from this town we took a one-way cable car up into the mountains. There, a 17-kilometer mountain route awaited us, including a descent on our own.
We left early in the morning on the first bus—and, as it turned out, that was absolutely the right call. On that very day, a cycling day was being held in Selva di Val Gardena, something even our bus driver didn’t know about: as we approached, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam because the road had been closed for cyclists. The bus stopped two stops early, so we got off with everyone else and walked for another half hour along the route being prepared for the bike ride.
But by then, the endorphins of anticipation had already kicked in, so everything felt like a joy! The atmosphere, the people around us. Just look at what a wonderful local alpine man is in the photo!
The trails, as everywhere else, were marked—painted in red and white and labeled with numbers. We actually followed MapsMe, only checking the signs from time to time.
For the first few kilometers, we had lots of fellow hikers around us—people just kept coming and going. But as it turned out, many of them were only hiking to the first mountain pass; after that, only a handful remained. And after the high-altitude tavern, over the last 8 kilometers, we met no more than five people.
At times, the route was not easy, especially the climbs up to the passes: some people stopped and turned back. At that point, it was really more like “climbing the mountains” than strolling through meadows.
Looking at my photos, you might get the impression that most of it was still flat trails, but that’s not quite true. Whenever there were difficult or even slightly dangerous climbs, I put my phone away and focused on them rather than on taking pictures)
Though of course, I wanted to photograph literally everything—so I could look back at it later and dive into it all over again. But I never once thought about giving up and turning back. My only slight concern was missing the last bus. Just in case, we brought 200 euros in cash with us: in case we had to hire a local to get back to Bolzano, or spend the night right there in Selva di Val Gardena. But we made it in time!
Lunch in the middle of the day came at just the right moment—and not even so much because we were hungry (we only had minestrone soup—it was delicious!), but more to recharge our energy. And I also took a local strudel to go) I had planned to have a picnic somewhere along the way in the mountains, but it just didn’t happen—so we ended up bringing it back to town with us.
After lunch, the route was almost constantly downhill, into the mountain crevices—but it still wasn’t easy.
But it was beautiful! Closer to the foot of the mountain, we started seeing cows and tourists who weren’t climbing up, but were simply walking around near the base.
The route, just as promised, was exactly 17 kilometers long—not more, not less. Perfect!