Gloppedalsura

Gloppedalsura fills the head of a valley with rock on a scale that is hard to judge from photographs: blocks the size of houses, some estimated at several hundred tonnes, piled hundreds of metres up the slope where the mountainside collapsed after the last ice age, when the supporting glacier melted away. The road runs along the foot of it, with a lay-by and an information board, and from there the eye keeps failing to find something for scale until a car appears at the far end. Water runs somewhere beneath the boulders rather than over them. Walking out onto the scree is possible but the blocks are unstable and the gaps between them are deep, so most people look from the road.

What you actually see

• The boulder scree - blocks the size of buildings filling the valley head.
• The scale problem - a slope where distance is hard to judge by eye.
• The roadside viewpoint - a lay-by with an information board.
• The hidden stream - water running beneath the rocks rather than over them.

When to go

May to September for clear roads and easy stopping; the site is visible year-round but winter conditions on this mountain road can be difficult. Overcast light actually shows the rock texture better than harsh sun.

Honest expectations

This is a roadside stop of twenty minutes with no facilities. Climbing on the scree is genuinely dangerous, with unstable blocks and deep voids between them. The lay-by holds only a few cars.

Nearby

Byrkjedal and its candle factory lie east; Manafossen and the Frafjord valley are north.