I recently had the good fortune to be able to go to Norway to do a hiking circuit in Jotunheimen National Park. Jotunheimen is northeast of Bergen, about halfway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Swedish border.
The park offers a wide range of opportunities to explore nature and experience it any way you want. These range from easy & short hikes to long & challenging ones. It is also possible to drive to some of the cabins/huts and just do short walks and enjoy the scenery around the cabins/huts. Oh, and some of the cabins/huts are worth spending time at!
Our hiking circuit in Jotunheimen – options
A friend of mine had hiked in Jotunheimen before and suggested a hiking circuit for us to do over a period of 6 days. There were options in terms of:
- which direction (clockwise/counterclockwise)
- starting point (which of the driving accessible cabins/huts)
- ending point (either the same as the starting point or another, coupled with a ferry ride to get back to the starting point)
- cabin-to-cabin itineraries
- routes options within a cabin-to-cabin route.
Our hiking circuit in Jotunheimen – starting point and direction
We opted to start in Gjendesheim as it afforded an early start if we stayed right there vs. ferrying to Memurubu or Gjendebu. That meant an earlier start than most people who would be doing hikes on that day. The trails ended up not being that crowded at all but I still liked the early start!
Gjendesheim also has a nearby long-term parking about a mile away which was good since we had decided to rent and hold the car while we spent the week in the park.
In terms of the direction, my friend had done counter-clockwise before and strongly believed that to the best way to tackle the circuit. For me, it was good getting the longest segment out of the way on the first day (which had the downside of doing the longest day when still not fully “warmed up”).
Our hiking circuit in Jotunheimen – the route
So with Gjendesheim being the starting point and the direction being counterclockwise, the obvious first cabin/hut was Glitterheim. This meant the 14-mile hike.
The next stop was obvious: Spiterstulen. However, the question was how to get to Spiterstulen. See, there were two options there:
- Hike up to summit Glittertind, northern Europe’s second highest peak, OR
- Hike around Glittertind.
We opted to summit Glittertind, weather-permitting, as it would be great to have the experience of summitting.
From Spiterstulen, the best option is Leirvassbu. This was my favorite trail but more on that in a later post!
From Leirvassbu, our best option on the loop we were going for was to head to Gjendebu on the shores of Gjende Lake.
From there, there is the option to skip out on the rest of the circuit and take the ferry to Gjendesheim (or even to Memurubu). We, of course, wanted to hike to Memurubu. That is a story onto itself…
Finally, from Memurubu the options included the ferry, the Bessegen route, and the shore-side trail. We opted for the latter and that story will be in a future post!
Our hiking circuit in Jotunheimen – the summary
- Day 1: Gjendesheim -> Glitterheim (14 miles) -> read about it here
- Day 2: Glitterheim -> Spiterstulen (via Glittertind) (11 miles) -> read about it here
- Day 3: Spiterstulen -> Leirvassbu (12 miles) -> read about it here
- Day 4: Leirvassbu -> Gjendebu (10 miles) -> read about it here
- Day 5: Gjendebu -> Memurubu (6.7 miles) -> read about it here
- Day 6: Memurubu -> Gjendesheim (6.6 miles) -> read about it here
For me, in hindsight, this itinerary forced me to do the hardest work upfront (days 1 and 2) and having “easier” hikes on the remaining days. Don’t be fooled when I say “easier”. None are a walk in the park by a long stretch!
There is no right or wrong way to do Jotunheimen but I can certainly say this route worked really well for me!
Check out the park’s website here.
