Hiking – mountaineering

The most authentic contact between man and nature. For centuries, people have enjoyed going to the mountains to see how settlements in the valley look from another perspective, to enjoy the fresh air, to rest from the stresses of daily life, and mainly to find inner peace in the beautiful summits of the Julian Alps. Over a million years, nature has shaped a very diverse relief featuring wonderful mountains, low basins and deep valleys, and high meadows and slopes whose primitivity and wilderness are exhilarating.

Hikers in the Bovec region get captivated by numerous marked high-elevation trails, which are known for their primeval, secluded rocky land and karst phenomena. Kanin has several chasms more than 1000m deep. The highest peaks of the Julian Alps include the mighty Mt. Triglav and its neighbours: Mt. Razor, Mt. Prisank, Mt. Jalovec and Mt. Mangrt represent challenges for those seeking mountaineering pleasures. The upper station of the Kanin circular cable car, at 2202m, is a great starting point for trips to high mountain areas.

The lowlands with their vast forests, blue-green rivers and streams, magnificent waterfalls and gorges are enriched by old homesteads with friendly people. Lovers of lowland trips around Bovec can enjoy theme routes such as the Walk of Peace and the Soča trail.

Gallery

Thematic trails

The Walk of Peace

Through the numerous outdoor museums, memorials and cemeteries the stories of the past which was marked by the bloody Isonzo Front, describe the mark that was left by the First World War on the otherwise heavenly beautiful area of the Soča Valley. The Walk of Peace, which is altogether 230 km long, crosses both the Slovenian and the Italian territory.

Travelers who will tread the Walk of Peace, where hundreds of thousands of young boys of various nationalities left their youth, their unfulfilled dreams and their lives, will remember the immense suffering and the screams of the dying ones. Let yourself be overtaken by gratitude for peace and beauty of the green nature in the Soča Valley, which was harmed during the First World War by loud explosions and the thunder of weapons.

The Walk of Peace in the Soča Valley starts at the entrance to the mining shaft Štoln in Log pod Mangartom and ends in Mengore. In addition to other interesting military remains, memorials and natural beauties it connects six outdoor museums:

• Ravelnik and Čelo near Bovec,
• Zaprikraj above Kobarid,
• Kolovrat,
• Mrzli vrh
• Mengore above Tolmin.

Alpe Adria Trail

This long distance hiking trail Alpe Adria Trail leads from the foot of the highest mountain in Austria, the Grossglockner, through the most beautiful mountain and lake regions in Carinthia, and, without any major detours, leads close to the point where the three countries of Austria, Italy and Slovenia intersect at the Dreiländereck, and then on through Slovenia in Soča Valley towards Trieste and the Adriatic.

There are 5 stages of Alpe Adria in Soča Valley:

• Kranjska Gora – Trenta (stage no. 23)
• Trenta – Bovec (stage no. 24)
• Bovec – Drežnica (stage no. 25)
• Drežnica – Tolmin (stage no. 26)
• Tolmin – Tribil di Sopra (stage no. 27)

Dairy Pastures in the Upper Soča Valley

The cheese route, a guide to the still living and abandoned mountain cottages of the Bovec and the Soča Valley, represents the ethnological mountain cottages  and cheese heritage. Among the living mountain cottages in Bovec, where it is possible to buy sheep’s cheese, cottage cheese and to invigorate yourself with whey, are:

• Mangart mountain,
• mountain Brdo (Loška Koritnica),
• mountain Duplje,
• Božca mountain (cow cheese).

Mangart mountain, the Božca mountain and partly the mountain Brdo are accessible by bicycle. To reach mountain Duplje, which lies in the vicinity of the Krn Lakes, you have to hike for about 2 hours. Mountain trails are also directed to the ruins of former mountain cottages (Za Skalo, Zapotok, Bala …). We recommend hiring a guide.