About Hesjedalsfossen
Hesjedalsfossen (I think is pronounced “HEH-sheh-dahls-foss-un”) was a dual waterfall that we managed to notice just before we were about to enter a tunnel.
It was a good thing we noticed it because I doubted that we would’ve seen it at all had we gone into the tunnel given its somewhat easy-to-miss location.
The falls was said to be 70m tall as it faced the Oster Fjord (Osterfjorden; the fjord of cheese?).
For such a nice waterfall, each time I’ve seen it (once with Julie in 2005 and the other time alone in 2019), it seemed like no one else bothered to stop for it.
I attribute that to both the easy-to-miss location as well as the relative lack of tourist traffic going on this road, which ultimately led towards Modalen.
As for our experiences, we were able to see the falls from the stone road bridge right before the tunnel.
This yielded the photo you see below.
We also went down a steep and somewhat rough path to the bottom of the bridge.
There, it was possible to go under that bridge and scramble closer to the waterfall itself though it would involve getting wet, I’m sure.
That was due to the amount of spray down below the bridge as well as the depth of the water there.
So I was content to just take my photos from before the bridge, which yielded the one you see at the top of the page.
Each time we’ve visited this falls, we didn’t stay for long. It rained pretty hard on our first visit in 2005.
Though the weather was better on my 2019 visit, I just opted not to linger for too long.
Hesjedalsfossen was said to be fed by lakes in the hanging Hesjedal Valley (Hesjedalen).
This waterfall had the distinction of being on the only river in the Vaksdal municipality (kommune) that wasn’t disturbed for hydroelectric purposes (at least as of our visits in June 2005 and June 2019).
According to my Norwegian dictionary, the word hes meant “horse”, but the word “hesje” meant haydrying rack.
So based on these translations, the compound word hesjedal could mean something like “horse valley” or “haydrying rack valley” (the latter wouldn’t make much sense, I’d imagine).
Whatever the case may be with the names, I’d imagine if there was some way to be on the fjord, it might yield a more contextual and satisfying view of the falls than what we were able to get from the road and beneath the bridge.
Authorities
Hesjedalsfossen resides in the Vaksdal Municipality. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website or Facebook page.
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