Final Fjords
Bøyabreen, Fjaerland and Balestrand
Monday, June 24, 2025
We left the fjord-side hotel in Loen and drove through several villages through the Nordfjord region until we went over a mountainous area and through a valley to reach the lakeside town of Skei.
Along the inner Nordfjord above, and climbing towards Skei, to the right.
More photos from the drive this morning.
Here is the map again showing the route(s) we took from Alesund to Bergen. We will drive the last part tomorrow.
From there, we climbed one more mountain saddle and went through tunnels until we reached Bøyabreen glacier. The information sign told us it is the fastest moving glacier in Norway moving two meters a day. The relatively steep and short shape of Bøyabreen gives a quicker response to changes in weather and climate than most glaciers in Norway. Heavy snowfall one winter will result in an increase in ice at the glacier front after only three years. Bøyabreen glacier extends down to 150 meters above sea level (vs. 1,000 to 1,800 meters at the top of the icefield).
It was a short walk to a viewpoint on a small glacial lake.
First view of the glacier
as we drove on the
access road to the
viewpoint. More views
of the glacier, below.
The glacier was lit by bright sunshine and was surrounded by many waterfalls and beautiful mountains. There was also a bus of tourists, so we also visited a quieter glacier about ten minutes away.
We were the only people at the Supphellebreen viewpoint. The glacier does not descend as low as the other, but it has blue ice. It was nice to have a glacier to ourselves!
This glacier is bluer than the last one.
Afterwards, we went to the Norsk BreMuseum near the town of Fjærland. This is an excellent museum with a fantastic film showing many of the glaciers in the Jostedalsbreen National Park. There are also exhibits about how glaciers are formed and behave, as well as an interactive exhibit on climate change.
The glacier museum, above (note the mammoth) and below a view from there.
We then went on to check out a small fjord-side village of Fjærland and found nowhere to eat lunch, so we returned to the museum’s cafe. We then drove back to the Sognefjord near the town of Sogndal, where we stayed a week ago.
Views around Fjærland
We then turned west and drove to Hella, were we caught a ferry to Dragsvik. This was another electric ferry, and the crossing took only about ten minutes. Two views from the ferry.
Since it was bright and sunny, we decided to visit one more viewpoint on a Norwegian Tourist Route, this one on the Gualarfjellet. We drove up another switchback road, about a half hour, to the Utsikten viewpoint. It looks over a deep mountain valley and into glacial fields.
View along the fjord heading up to the viewpoint. Below, the road and the view from the top.
We then drove back down towards the ferry and continued on around the shore to the town of Balestrand, where we checked in to our historic hotel. After checking in, we strolled through the peaceful village and visited St Olaf’s Anglican Church, built in 1897 and found it to be quite different from the other churches in Norway.
Three views of St Olaf’s.
The high temperature today was 21C, the warmest since we’ve been in Norway! It will only get warmer from here.
Tomorrow, we are heading to Bergen where we will ditch the car until turning it in at the airport.
