Szklarka Waterfall

The Szklarka drops about thirteen metres over a granite step in the forest below Szklarska Poreba, and the shape is what distinguishes it: the water spreads across the rock face as it falls rather than staying in a column, so it comes down as a fan or veil, with a pool and boulders at the bottom and beech and spruce closing over the gorge. It is the second highest fall in the Polish Karkonosze after Kamienczyk and by far the easier of the two to reach - the path from the road is level and takes twenty minutes, which makes it the one to do with children or in poor weather. A wooden inn stands at the top of the path. It is inside the national park boundary and the entry fee applies. In hard winters it freezes into a column and is climbed by ice climbers, and in summer after dry weeks it can thin to very little.

What you actually see

• A fan-shaped fall - water spreading across the granite rather than falling as a column.
• Thirteen metres - the second highest in the Polish Karkonosze.
• An easy approach - a level twenty-minute path, unlike Kamienczyk's steps.
• A frozen winter column - climbed by ice climbers in hard years.

When to go

May to October; spring for volume, winter for the ice. An hour.

Honest expectations

It thins substantially after dry weeks. The viewing area is small and busy at weekends. Park entry is charged. The inn at the top is the only facility.

Nearby

Szklarska Poreba is west; Kamienczyk waterfall is beyond it.