Lake Krn Hike
If you thought there was just one lake worth visiting in Green Slovenia then you are gonna be in for a bit of a shock, when we tell you if we did a Top 10 Lakes here in the most beautiful small Green country in Europe, then in our humble opinion, the uberbeautiful, sensational Lake Bled would currently be number 7 on our list!
How lucky Green Slovenia is indeed..
For us, Bled was immediately pushed one more place down the list last summer, when some friends took us on an epic hike up one of Slovenia's most beloved mountains to find a totally unexpected lake oasis, sitting perfectly between higher mountain peaks, with cows and a donkey wandering around munching the lush Alpine grass..
There are so many amazing hikes either directly from the Lodge or with a drive for a fab day out hiking that we did a Lodge Walks page AND a Hiking page!
For such a tiddly country, Slovenia has a bit of everything that makes Europe so wonderful, cos we sit bang in the middle of the continent, with 4 Alpine regions, one Mediterranean coast, 7 wine regions, rolling central European hills & meadows and even a totally flat bit next to Hungary..
You often have to pinch yourself to remember you are not in the south of France, the Austrian mountains or the Swiss lakes, but here in little old Green Slovenia!
When you add the fantastic local cuisine & wines and are reminded that Slovenia is 13 times bigger than Greater London, with less people than Greater Manchester, then you can start to get even more excited about finally visiting the 3rd most forested country in Europe..
But the info out there can be hit & miss.. We are pretty sure you will be able to find out everything you need to know (and don't need to know) about one of the most beautiful Alpine lakes in Europe, Lake Bled, but we are betting this might even be the first time you heard anything at all about Lake Krn?
We had seen photos and knew this lake was on our very large "list to Do", but in truth we didn't really know how to actually "do it" until some friends from nearby Postojna suggested we go hike it one Saturday in early May!
Now if you have read more of our Secret Places to Visit articles you will know that one member of the Lodge team is not great with heights, so you can be pretty sure that despite Mt Krn being one of the highest mountains in Slovenia at 2,244m, there are no sheer drops on this hike and nothing to be worried about!
Indeed there are so many non scary hikes available here if you are nervous about cliff edges and the like!
And with this hike you are not climbing up Krn mountain, just going to the lake..
But that doesn't mean this Lake Krn hike is not a challenge and you will certainly need to be relatively fit and capable of hiking up a forest path, over roots and rocks for around 2-3 hours to reach the lake and then hiking back down, maybe a bit quicker, but carefully to do this fantastic trip..
But wow oh wow, you can get a kinda feeling from the photos we put on this page how uberstunning the ENTIRE day is, but you really have to see it all for yourself, have the aches & pains in your legs too and sit down at the end of it all for some mountain food..
Getting to the Lake Krn Hike..
An early start is required from the Lodge for this one as you will be driving up the Vipava Valley motorway to Nova Gorica, where you join the uberstunning Soca river and drive up past Kanal, Tolmin, Kobarid AND Bovec to reach the Lepena river in the village of Soca.
The scenery on the way up is incredible and it feels like you go through several different European countries, but of course it is ALL Slovenia and due to the Lodge's amazing location even this journey takes just 2 hours 10 mins for you to reach the Soca Gorge and the Lepena river in the heart of the Julian Alps!
It then takes another 10 mins or so to drive up the narrow river side road up into the mountains a bit to reach a little guest house restaurant called DOM KLEMENTA JUGA V LEPENI, which is basically the end of the road and where this epic hike up to Lake Krn begins!
So either you will have had breakfast, done a coffee stop on the way or decided to get some brekkie here at the restaurant.. or all of these options!
But it is essential for this hike that you have plenty of water and snacks & stuff to eat, cos this is a proper day trip into Green paradise!
The Plan for today is simple..
Ok, so in brief there is an easy to follow trail ALL the way to the lake, with a view of the stunning Mt Krn peak off in the distance behind the lake..
We will walk up a steep, winding mountain forest path, completely surrounded by trees and boulders until after a couple of hours we pop out at what seems to be the top, where it is much flatter and we walk along a forest path towards a mountain hut and then out under rocky peaks and stony Alpine meadows to the lake.
Leave enough time to enjoy the lake and then it is a walk straight back, maybe refuelling at the hut, so BRING CASH, then back down the stone track to the car..
That's it for the day, but there will be time to do some other little Green bonuses if you desire..
Impossible to say exactly how long it will take you, but maybe budget 3 hours up until the lake and 2 and a half back down, but then factor in taking LOTS of photos, pop stops, enjoying the lake and even having lunch at the mountain cottage, so could be much longer..
Hiking up to Lake Krn..
The hike starts like so many other ones in Green Slovenia, surrounded by trees and rocks and get used to this, cos we are now gonna walk the long zig zag loops directly up this side of the mountain.
The forest path itself is beautiful and you will get several clear vistas out across the Lepena valley & river side of these mountains, just beautiful..
This is not a hike that needs over explaining or complicating, cos the mission is simple to get to the lake and the signs are pretty good..
The path is also pretty obvious going up, with some wooden written signs and those little red circles on trees and rocks to help you too..
But you MUST at the very least know that lake is Jezero in Slovenian and words get twisted here, so don't panic if you see variations of Krn and Jezero, you will be on the right track..
You must also be prepared to trudge uphill relentlessly, but your reward will quite literally be in heaven on this occasion!
We had been watching the weather report carefully this week as you have to be sensible and not hike up so high if it is rainy as in the mountians you can easily get storms out of nothing..
We were relieved to get a decent forecast to make it worth setting off on the hike, but it sounded like our tummies rumbling when about an hour into the hike we heard the distant sound of thunder.
So we had to decide whether to go on, always calculating how quickly you can get back down.. the rumble was pretty distant, but a warning nonetheless.
Look out above for when you pass a cable line and we were lucky enough to see the big metal cable box passing above with people in!
This was quite a shock after seeing nobody for a while and it is a good sign too on this hike as you are nearing the top of the first phase!
So high up we saw a deer bobbing off on a steep slope as we reached the small cable car station and understood more what this actually was.
It is not a regular cable car, but looks like it can be used to bring supplies up the mountain to the manned hut that also has sleeping and a restaurant.
It is a lovely place to stop for a sandwich and then you walk through a narrow pass with high mountain cliffs on either side and really get the feeling that you have popped out onto the top of this part of the mountain!
You also pass a big wooden post with markers on for April snow levels over the years and realise this hike is probably a May to October activity!
Tha main path is a lot flatter now, but there will still be ups and downs as you remain in the forest for a while following the signs for the hut and the lake.
The distant rumbles had continued, so even here we still had doubts whether to push on for the lake or just go to the hut, but we really wanted to see the lake so took a reasonable gamble it would stay dry..
So we ignored the left turn to the hut and continued straight on to the lake, passing a few farm sheds for goats and cows and now hiking on big open green expanses, filled with rock mountain meadows & peaks towering up along side and in front of us in every direction..
This was like a dream and a completely different feeling to the tightly enclosed forest on the way up to here..
You also have the anticipation that the lake is near, but you still have to hike a bit more.
We arrived at the lake and a few little droplets of rain fell, but we where here now and totally transfixed by the colour of the water and in almost disbelief that there can be such a big lake up here in the mountains.
You pop out of the last tree cover and face the 400m length of the lake immediately, stretching away from you towards more peaks, one of them being the famous Krn triangle shape.
There are many things that hit you up here.. Relief, wonder and joy of course.. But it is very green up here too with lots of little mini forests dotting the peaks..
And it is completely silent..
Apart that is for the cow bells that we heard and saw a bunch of cows munching away on the ridiculously green grass with a donkey for company!
There were also ONLY 2 other people here.. Sitting on a rock further over, at this end of the lake..
We just had to sit down and take it all in.. The intense aqua turquoise colour of the water blends perfectly with the high white cliffs that soar out of the water on both sides.
And then the friendly donkey came over and wanted some grass, so we had to pat her a bit and fetch some of the green stuff for her!
Looking back at such a wonderful scene, we cannot gurantee you a donkey, but this friendly natural animal addition made the setting just perfect.
And as if someone upstairs could read our souls.. the sun came out!
You absolutely cannot go in the water, it is forbidden cos you could easily do such damage to the fragile eco system up here, but we did notice there was a path skirting along one rim of the lake along the side and our friends had not actually been along it last time, so we gave it a go..
Make sure you also give it a go!
You have to go back to the start of the lake and go up just a little bit to reach the path, but soon you have left the shore behind and have new views and experiences along the side of the lake.
The closer you get to the other end of the lake you can see there is a white beach awaiting you and I happened to look down at the water to see a frog staring up at me, then swimming off at rapid speed!
You really must walk to the far end of the lake.. The views back to the main shore are spectacular..
But when you reach the white beach, you notice a huge cave high up in the side of the mountain, pretty flowers growing on patches of grass and in the very far corner of this end of the lake a mass of dark green frog spawn, with tadpoles whizzing around in the water.
So you realise how much nature there is up here and this dark green mass looks like an alien world..
We calculated we could have about 15 mins here on the white beach and honestly this little snooze, catnap, whatever you want to call it, was the absolute highlight from many highlights of the day..
We had seen another couple on the path here to the far end of the lake, but they had disappeared and we lay down on the soft white pebbles to soak in the sun's rays up here with all the nature, views and in complete and utter silence..
Totally magical..
I got a fleeting thought to wonder how many people were trudging around Lake Bled today on a sunny Saturday afternoon in May and decided it would be significantly more people than just us sitting here in a perfect mountain paradise!
Reading our website, you will often see this bold sentance.. It just does not get any better than this..
But it really doesn't, the great thing is you can get this same amazing feeling at so many other secret green locations around Green Slovenia.
If you do manage to hike up here and maybe meet the donkey, see a frog or two and the sun might even come out too, then many congratulations, cos you will have cracked Green Slovenia..
With such a huge feeling of inner karma & satisfaction it is easy to finally leave the lake, knowing one day you will surely return, but for now we wanted to fill up our bottles and have a well earned drink at the mountain cottage.
Yep, this is a "there and back walk", but walking back and facing the other direction makes it seem like a new hike!
The donkey had returned to the rocky meadows ahead of us with her bell ringing friends and just past the little farm you follow a short track to the hut, which is a lot bigger and chunkier than you might imagine.
We normally phone ahead and check opening times for castles, towers and pretty much everything we visit on our daytrips, but we did not even know there was a hut up here on the walk, cos for this trip we just followed our friends..
So it was a total bonus we could get a cold drink and even food up here if you like, but we had packed enough sandwiches and treats!
Only one of us had brought some cash though, so do not forget to have cash and cards available to pay in any which way the lovely people up here in these remote spots ask you to pay!
We had been lucky with the sunshine and now found out this was the FIRST opening day for the cottage, which was another stroke of luck and talking to the friendly staff we realised they hike up here and STAY for months on end for a totally awesome summer job!
We left the hut with a bounce in our step, but this was soon crushed by a short, steep uphill bit back to the main path and the feel good factor in our limbs abruptly come to an end as the fatigue of the hike up returned to our legs!
But now the hike was all about going mainly downhill and trying to spot sites we remembered from the way up..
It is too far back down not to have a sandwich or energy bar stashed away for a little pop stop and we realised our good fortune as it finally started to tinkle a bit with rain as we almost reached the bottom end of this hike..
We were protected by the thick tree canopy in any case and even this drizzle petered out by the time we reached the car park, put some trainers on and walked down to the restaurant to have a very well earned late afternoon lunch!
It only seems fair if you park here that you give the restaurant some business and this is really not difficult as the food there is fantastic..
Up here in the mountains they sometimes do a fantastic local energy dish called Frika, which usually consists of fried cheese and potatoes with maybe a sausge thrown in..
Delicious and was washed down the hatch with a pint of apple juice and Slovenian mineral water!
Bonus Lepena Waterfall..
Depending on the time, your energy and what you know about all the amazing secret places there are to see between here and the Lodge you could have some real adventures still to come on the way home..
We kinda have an unwritten rule for exploring Green Slovenia that if we ever see a sign for Slap (waterfall), Izvir (source or spring or a new river) or any other little brown sign for that matter, we try to follow it and we cannot tell you how often we have been completely surprised at what little green wonders we end up finding!
It was impossible not to see the little sign for Slap and 15 mins in the car park, so how could we resist!
We dragged our aching limbs up a very narrow stone track that went into the forest and ending up hanging off branches a bit to get a view through the leaves of a quite distant, but nonetheless beautiful waterfall..
We realised later that of course this is the spring of the stunning Lepena river that flows all the way back down to join the Soca river..
Indeed a massive recommendation to combine with this day out would be to now go visit the Lepena Waterfalls about 5 mins drive or halfway from this car park back down the road to the Soca gorge.
This is a unique rock garden with multiple waterfalls you can walk around in a circle and our article on the Lepena Water Gardens starts you off from the bottom end of the river, hiking up, but you do not need to do this now (anyway you will not have the time or energy left), as you are coming from above, so there is a little car park you can stop off at on the side of the road down and then walk directly across to see these wonderful waterfalls..
If poss, do not miss those waterfalls..
Maybe you will also stop a few mins drive down from the Lepena Water Gardens at the Soca gorge for an ice cold swim or paddle or even a jump into the water from the gorge cliffs to wake you up for the journey home.. But expect to see more pristine little white beaches..
Please just check our Secret Places Treasure Map for a whole host of different eating, drinking and fun places to stop on the way home to the Lodge, cos there are just too many to mention now and it depends on what you prefer..
But for us, it would be a stop off for a last coffee or ice cream in Kanal with a view of the stunning bridge and river and then a final lovely meal at one of the unique eateries in the Vipava Valley, just 20 mins around the corner from the Lodge, so an easy drive home..
Wow, what a day!
Probably schedule a day by the sea or a bit of E Biking to stretch off the leg muscles for tomorrow, but we are quite sure it will be another amazing day never to forget..
Just like this day, hiking to Lake Krn..
Oh yes and if your ears are still burning with desire to find out our current Top 6 Lakes ahead of Bled in our humble opinion, well here they are..
Lake Bohinj, Cerknica Disappearing Lake, Lake Krn, Petelinje Disappearing Lake, the Soca Lake, Planina Disappearing Lake and then lovely Lake Bled..
French Connection en Slovenie
