Waterfall paradise trail found in South Tyrol, Italy! | Berkwaal Sentiero del Sole trail – Dolomites Hiking #2

In today’s episode of Dolomites Hiking we are sharing with you the beautiful waterfall paradise trail. It is a one day 15 kms circuit hike in Val Venosta, South Tyrol, Italy starting from the village of Glurns, getting through the village of Schluderns then hiking up to the castle of Coira and taking the Sentiero del Sole to the Berkwaal channel.

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We started this summer cloudy day in the old medieval village Glurns where we stopped at the campsite Im Park. It was a nice small village with an old stone wall around it and typical Austrian architecture. We already spent a couple of days in it and our favourite part of it was a long public park very green close to the apple gardens with lots of benches and far from the car roads.

So we walked through the village and were out on a cycling path leading to the next village Schluderns. It was all very easy and flat several kms part.

It went through the fields with endless apple plantations. And we honestly haven’t seen so many apples in our life. From the very first day when we were just getting here we saw kilometers and kilometers of apple trees that were obviously grown in industrial sizes. There were different varieties of them with different shades of green and red. Later we learnt that it was a very special product of the region and a lot of food was made with apples here like apple juice and different sweet desserts like the famous Austrian apple pie –  Strudel for example.

Then we came to the other similar to Glurns village Schluderns and started to ascend up to the castle of Coira. The route was going quite steep right from the start but at least most of it was in the shadow.

The castle of Coira looked quite unusual with a lot of painting on the walls and windows and doors. It was possible to visit but we decided to continue on and use most of the day for hiking.

The weather that day was just perfect for hiking partly cloudy partly sunny with the cool fresh air. Overall we felt like summer is the best season to spend in the mountains because you don’t get to suffer from extreme heat and the climate is always comfortable to be in.

When we passed by the castle the route continued to go up quite a steep uphill this time going through the apple fields. On the way we got to enjoy the great views over the valley and surrounding mountains.

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We took the directions of the trail Sentiero del Sole number 17 and were following it all day long. At one moment the route became flatter and began to twist through the shadowed forest. It was going along the river channel Berkwaal on one side and proximity of the water made it very special.

We met quite a lot of people hiking in different directions and thought that it was probably one of the popular trails to take.

The path was climbing slightly upwards but was very easy and enjoyable and every time it turned the other beautiful view was opening to the eyes.

Then we came out to a very special place where three river channels were coming into one and they were connected by wooden constructions, some of them were literally made out of the tree trunk. The water flow was very rapid so we could watch the water movement in these narrow channels. Overall big part of this trail was made or strengthened by wood like bridges, part of the footpaths and rails.

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The water was accompanying us all the way through and it was very refreshing and its sound very soothing. So following this idyllic peaceful path we got to the crossroad where one of the trails continued climbing up and the other one was doing a loop crossing the river and continuing to go along the gorge on the other side. We took the second one and it had the same marking of Sentiero del Sole.

The place of the crossroads was really beautiful with the big wide river coming down from the rocks and lots of high waterfalls flowing down into it. We had to get through the stairs to come down to the river and then coming up again.

We thought that all the river part is over and channels will stay on the other side. But we were surprised to know that it actually continued but now the stream was going in the other direction and it was called Leiten Waal.

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So we enjoyed the same wonderful trail all the next several kms. We found a bench with a panoramic view to have our snack and were pleased to know that there are a lot of rest areas and picnic tables to choose from during this trail.

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The trail continued to descend a very gentle downhill all the second part and only in the end it became steeper. So we got back to the village Schluderns and its apple fields and completed the circuit.

It was a wonderful peaceful day for us with the nicest weather and we were excited for the next amazing trails to come in Dolomites.

Here is the link to Google map to follow the hike: