The Hotel Kaiserhof puts out a lovely and hearty breakfast spread- eggs cooked 3 ways, assortment of many types of breads, cheeses and meats, fruits, sausages, yogurts, muesli and sweet breads We eat enough to skip lunch. The Austrians make great coffee! It was forecasted to be a beautiful day and the clouds were lifting. We know we should make the most of it.
They had minimal information in the hotel lobby on regarding the park which was about what I could find online. All I knew was that it was a large protected area with a myriad of hiking trails, lakes etc.; where they were and how to access them was a mystery. There was some mention of an info center in Mittersill so that seemed like a good start. Lo and behold, the center was a regular small national park visitors’ center and the lady was extremely helpful. She explained that a national park is just protected space. It is not like parks in the US that have a defined entrance and trail heads. Hohe Tauern covers 1200 sq meters running lengthwise from close to Innsbruck to Salzburg and depth wise from the mountain top to the edge of the valley. Villages are interspersed along its length with gondolas that take you up to where you can hike, gorges you can hike up, lakes and reservoirs with trails, etc. Basically you access the lands and trails from any of the villages. I now understood why info was so hard yo find. Each village had its own trail map and visitor info. There is one panoramic road called the Grossglockner High Alpine Road that is 48 km long and starts in Fucht, a 30 min drive away! We decided to start there. She pointed out several “must sees” but it would take weeks to fully explore this area!!
The main road to Fucht runs lengthwise through the valley and we see that the bright green spaces we were admiring, are actually clearings in the forest, for cows to graze or for ski runs. More and more of the hillsides are being cleared. We weren’t sure how protected these land are as much of it appears to be privately owned.
We share the Grossglockner High Alpine Road with cyclists. It is steep and we are impressed with their athleticism as well as their fearlessness, coming down at speeds faster than we dared to drive, 30-40 mph? The early morning clouds were breaking and we were treated to an ethereal and majestic scene as we rise above the cloud layer.
We reach the high point and looking down can see the winding road we came up.
From here we can also see the backside of the mountain which resembles the eastern sierras, more barren, perhaps the clouds get stuck and don’t drop as much precipitation.
We head back down the mountain, opting not to continue on the switchbacks up to the glacier. On our way back, we stop at the town of Ziller em See, a beautiful setting along the lake with mountains behind it. We can imagine how gorgeous it must be with snow on them. Thus ends our day at Hohe Tauern.
