Hövringen



Hövringen is located not far away from Sel, right just a few kilometers north of Sel, where the broad open valley turns in to a narrow river gorge. From the E6, you take a right turn and climb up to the mountain pasture up in the highlands. Hövringen is quite close to the Rondane National park and with a bit of luck you will be able to see some of the impressive peaks right from your car. But better yet, it is to take a hike on the many paths to get closer. If you turn around to opposite direction, you will have a breath taking view on the valley below you and the most eastern of the Jotumheim peaks.






Originally, Høvringen was a community of summer mountain pastures ("seter" in Norwegian) used by farmers from the villages further down. The first tourists came to Høvringen as early as the 1880s, and even though it has now developed into a modern tourist resort, the animal life is still rich and high standards and good service are combined with preservation of the culture and tradition of the old "seter" farms.

Høvringen and Rondane have left their mark in Norwegian cultural history. On his journey through the valley of Gudbrandsdalen, P.Chr. Asbjørnsen, well known for his compilations of old Norwegian legends and fairy-tales, stayed in Høvringen in 1842. His stay formed the basis for the story of a local legend, Peer Gynt, who came upon trolls and terrifying monsters in Rondane. Asbjørnsen's fairy-tale Reindeer hunt at Rondane 20 years later created the basis for Henrik Ibsen's drama, Peer Gynt.
The community is located in the Rondane National Park at the altitude of 1000 meters. But it is very accessable for cars and there are infact quite a few cabins. appartments and hotels for lodging. I did have a feeling that the prices are onpricier level compared down at the camping sites lower in the valleys. But never the less it is a place to go as the scenery is very impressive.



There are a number of dirt roads starting at the end of the public roads but these are gravel toll roads where you have to pay a sum of money and write your license number on a note. I did that, and the price for driving another 5 kilometers was 20 Nkr.

But it the end of the road before another road toll station the scenery was indeed impressive. And the road I chose on random did what I believe was a sight to one of the peaks of Rondarne. But typical I guess it was embedded in a clouds. Still it was impressive to see how it dwarfed a smaller peak much closer.





Photos from Hövringen



Up in the Hövringen the scenes are picturesque and I guess a stay in these cabins during the summers are most likely incredible.



Photos seen here are shot towards Jotumheim. Hövringen offers great possibilities to any landscape photo graphers and its western slopes is ne place where the summer heat stays alittle longer, if the sun cooperates, even in mid fall.



These photos above had a bit of story as I waited for an hour ro clouds to clear off the mountain. Right behind me was a sunny day but it seemed that the peak acted like a magnet to the clouds.'




Here we are back on the public road with a few of the cabins in sight. The mountain in the background is Blåhö, which is towering 1611 meters over the sea level. There is a road right to the top and it is the third highest road in Scandinavia. Hopefully iti is driveable with a common car as i would love to have a stop there. It is also highly visible and dominating mountain seen from the town of Otta.

(To Otta) (To Dombås) (To Rondane)
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Copyright © 2005 Olavi Ahokas