Grawa Waterfall

The Grawa Waterfall was an impressively big waterfall, where the Sulzbach Creek tumbled over a height of 100m (though I’ve also seen 180m reported) with a width of 85m spilling into the Stubaital Valley. The waterfall’s breadth at peak flow in Summer (I went in late July 2018) apparently made this the widest waterfall in the Eastern Alps. Situated about 1km before the Stubai Glacier, it was clear to me that melting snow and ice were this waterfall’s primary drivers of its volume.

Luckily for me, this was a very easy waterfall to visit given the moderate to heavy rain when I did it. Indeed, my visit only took around 30 minutes though most of that time was spent trying to take pictures and wiping the camera from all the moisture from both the rain and the intense mist that was spraying a footbridge right at its base.

I managed to score parking near the Grawa Alm (see directions below) where I was already getting roadside views. Then, I went down to the alm where there were more sweeping views across the valley. Further upstream beyond the alm, there was a short trail that descended to a bridge over the Ruetz Brook (where I saw a separate cascade) before joining up with an easy path descending to the valley floor eventually reaching the footbridge at the foot of the Grawa Waterfall in another 5-10 minutes.

There was a rough path that continued before the footbridge towards another lookout. Unfortunately given the slippery conditions and the heavy rain, I opted not to do it. As a result, the time that I spent here easily could have doubled.

When I returned to the alm, I managed to get a different view of the waterfall after driving over to the long term car park closer to the Stubai Glacier. The trail that left from that trailhead ultimately met up with the same trail I took earlier near the bridge over the Ruetz Brook.

Finally, in terms of how this waterfall has been referenced in the literature, I’ve seen it referred to as the Grawafall as well as der Grawa Wasserfall (or Grawa-Wasserfall).