Henfallet

Ostby, Trondelag County, Norway

About Henfallet

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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Henfallet (pronounced “HEN-fall-uh”) was unlike the other waterfalls we had visited throughout much of Norway in that this giant wasn’t near any of the famous fjords along the country’s west.

In fact, it was probably closer to the Swedish border than it was to the charming city of Trondheim, which was where we were staying each time we’ve visit this falls – once in July 2005 and again in July 2019.

Henfallet_005_07042005 - Henfallet as seen on our first visit in July 2005
Henfallet as seen on our first visit in July 2005

Nonetheless, Julie and I made a long detour from the charming city to get to the village of Ås in the Tydal Municipality, which was where this waterfall was situated.

We definitely had a strong desire to pursue this waterfall since we had known about it from our pre-trip research, which had really built up our expectations.

Indeed, we had plenty of reasons to go out of our way to get here, not the least of which, was that we were witnessing the highest waterfall in the Sør-Trøndelag county at 90m.

It also had very high volume for a waterfall so tall thanks to the river Hena aggregating several other large rivers and watercourses further upstream.

Henfallet_042_07132019 - Henfallet as seen on our second visit in July 2019
Henfallet as seen on our second visit in July 2019

Because the river and its sources were not regulated for hydroelectric power, we felt like we were witnessing that rare waterfall where we were seeing it as it was supposed to be – natural and wild.

Experiencing Henfallet

From the car park (see directions below), which seemed to have expanded since we first came here in 2005, we followed a short trail that led to a lookout yielding the view you see in the photo at the top of this page.

On our second visit in 2019, they had built a lookout platform, which was where the official trail ended.

That said, I did notice a trail of use heading steeply down towards the Hena River, but it looked a bit too steep for my liking so I didn’t go all the way down.

Henfallet_071_07132019 - A picnic table and some kind of storage thing next to it, which was definitely something that wasn't here when we first came here in July 2005
A picnic table and some kind of storage thing next to it, which was definitely something that wasn’t here when we first came here in July 2005

Given that, there really wasn’t much else to do around this waterfall and so after getting our views, we returned to the car park.

In the end, we only spent perhaps at most 15 minutes away from the car.

One thing that I did notice in the 14 years between our visits to Henfallet was that our 2019 visit seemed to have had significantly less water than on our first visit.

Whether this had something to do with the snowpack or amount of precipitation on the year of our first visit in 2005 being more than in 2019, I’m not sure.

Henfallet_032_07132019 - The lookout platform with a direct view of Henfallet, which was definitely not there when we first made our visit in 2005
The lookout platform with a direct view of Henfallet, which was definitely not there when we first made our visit in 2005

In fact, the year we showed up appeared to have been an unusually wetter year as it might have made up for the dry Summer that happened the year before (according to Norwegians we’ve spoken to on the 2019 trip).

So whatever the case, it remains to be seen whether this diminishing flow is part of a longer trend or if we happened to be witnessing two extremes of rather anomalous events, or if Summer started later in 2005 than it did in 2019.

The Henfallet Nomenclature

Something interesting about the name of this waterfall was that there was no “foss” in its official name (if it did, I’d imagine it might be called Henafossen).

Instead, its name Henfallet was almost like a compound word saying quite literally “the Hena [River] falls”.

Henfallet_055_07132019 - All zoomed in on Henfallet as seen on our second visit in July 2019
All zoomed in on Henfallet as seen on our second visit in July 2019

I’m not sure if there were some regional or cultural variations giving rise to certain subtle differences in how the Norwegian language and its place names were to be used.

However, the waterfall’s close proximity to Sweden might also have something to do with it.

After all, it seemed like Swedish waterfalls tended to have -fallet as the suffix for their named waterfalls.

The same is true for the suffix -forsen.

To me when it comes to this part of the Swedish-Norwegian border, it almost seems as if the cultural boundaries don’t follow the political boundaries.

Kvernfossen

Henfallet_006_jx_07042005 - This was the waterfall we saw on the road bridge over the Tya River back in July 2005. The falls was called Kvernfossen according to the Norwegian maps
This was the waterfall we saw on the road bridge over the Tya River back in July 2005. The falls was called Kvernfossen according to the Norwegian maps

While our visits to Henfallet were brief, the waterfalling experience actually started from the side road that eventually led us to Henfallet in the first place.

Specifically, there was an attractive waterfall seen from the road bridge over the Tya River, which the Norwegian maps appeared to call it the Kvernfossen.

We only experienced this falls from the road bridge so we can’t say much more about how else we could experience it.

Nevertheless, when we first witnessed this waterfall back in early July 2005, it seemed to have pretty substantial wide river flow.

Henfallet_004_07132019 - This was what Kvernfossen looked like when I came back in July 2019
This was what Kvernfossen looked like when I came back in July 2019

When I came back in July 2019, the Tya River seemed to have a lot less flow, and thus it seemed nowhere near as impressive as when I first saw it.

Like with Henfallet, it’s unclear to me whether this was part of a longer-term trend or just the extremes on opposite ends of circumstances or merely Summer starting later in 2005 than in 2019.

Regardless, this was like the warm-up act to the much larger Henfallet waterfall further along the unpaved road.

Authorities

Henfallet resides near the town and municipality of Tydal in Trøndelag County, Norway. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website or Facebook page.

Maps and Routing Content are for annual subscribers. See Membership Options.
Content is for subscribers. See Membership Options.
Tagged with: tydal, as, roros, trondheim, sor-trondelag, central norway, norway, waterfall, henfallet, kvernfossen, trondelag



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Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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