Fanes waterfalls hike

Today we did the waterfall hike that we'd been talking about since our last trip to the Dolomites.

We park at the parking area the shuttle drove through to get to Rif. Ra Stua on Wednesday. From here we follow a nice path through the woods along and up until we get to the viewpoint above the Cascata de Fanes. It's a dramatically situated high waterfall and the klettersteig which goes behind it is nicely visible. This is going to be fun! Down, down we go into the gorge, along a steep trail, until we're at the bottom. Towards the waterfall a bit, past another group deciding what to do next, across the bridge, and then up the klettersteig on the other side. This takes us easily (but exposed) to the other rim. Here briefly along the hiking path and then following the signs to the klettersteig which takes us back along the inside of the gorge and behind the falls. Tons of fun here playing behind the waterfall. The continuation past the waterfall leads down into a drier part of the gorge and then to the bottom, but that's not our plan for today, so we just head back out the way we came and rejoin the hiking paths. On the way out we pass a group of 8 on their way in and another group still getting ready; it was definitely good to be here a bit early!

Now we start following the Sentiero dei Canyons e Delle Cascate, which we'll be on for large parts of the rest of the day. This is a really nice path taking us directly alongside the river, across bridges, past numerous other waterfalls, always ascending the gorge.  Food break next to a chain of cascades, and then further up the gorge and past more cool waterfalls. At Cascata Sbarco de Fanes there's another waterfall with a klettersteig behind it. This fall is not as high as the first, but it's broader and in direct sunlight, so we get great shadow play behind the falls. On the other side we head briefly up again and then cross another bridge. Here the trail we've been following starts to head back down, but we haven't had enough, so we opt to continue up the nice-looking valley towards the Fanes Huette (where we stayed on the 2004 trip). 

This stretch is following a gravel road, very popular with bikes, up, up the valley. Just after moving from one national park to the next we hit a big, open, idyllic field which is just too inviting to pass by. So we stop for another food break and enjoy the view for a while. Rather than continuing along the road and up through the trees we decide to turn around here and head back to do more of the  Sentiero dei Canyons. So, down, down we go along the road until we get back to the fork, and then further along the trail and down until we cross the deep, narrow, gorge at the bottom of the Val Travenanzes. We walked through a bit of the top of this on one of the snow hikes last year. If we were to continue up this valley we'd end up at the saddle between Lagazuoi and the Tofana Rozes. (Would be a fun hike to do, but with challenging travel logistics.) Anyway, across the gorge and then back around the corner to another trail junction. We stay on the Sentiero dei Canyons, now much less frequently travelled, and head around into the next small gorge. Up, up again to the waterfall at the end. This one we can't walk behind, but there is a bit of klettersteig that takes us to a point where we can actually see most of the fall (otherwise concealed behind rock). Then we head up and out of the gorge. Past a spot in the stream with a couple of nice evorsions (the vocabulary word of the day for us), one of which would have been a great bathing pool on a warmer day, and then across a bridge and back to the larger path which takes us down, down into the valley and back to the parking lot.

Another great day. This one would have worked on a cloudy day too, but the sun did add something.

Stats: 6:40, 19.9 km, ~950m up and down