Tvindefossen

About Tvindefossen

Rating: 3.5

Difficulty: 1

Hiking Distance: roadside

Suggested Time:

Date first visited: 2005-06-27

Date last visited: 2005-06-27

Waterfall Latitude: 60.72576

Waterfall Longitude: 6.48691

Directions: Get to the waterfall

Vicinity: Find nearby waterfalls

Tvindefossen (I’ve also seen it spelled Tvinnefossen) was a gorgeous 152m waterfall tumbling in strands with a graceful character that strangely contrasted the gushing waterfalls we had been used to seeing throughout Norway to this point of our June 2005 trip. This was one waterfall that was very easy to visit as it was literally right off the E16 motorway that was close enough to the city of Voss to gain the falls quite a bit of notoriety as it was both conspicuous and accessible to even the most casual waterfallers. Thus, I had a bit of fun setting up the tripod and taking very long exposure photos to exploit its graceful character (see photo at the top of this page). Fortunately for me, the rain that I had to deal with on an earlier visit to Siseljafossen had finally let up enough to make this exercise possible.

Now given its relatively light flow, I reckon it can run dry not far into Summer. In fact, the friendly hotel proprietor at the Vossestolen Hotel showed me a photo album containing a pair of photos of Tvindefossen where one was taken when it was flowing well (like what I had seen earlier that morning) while another photo showing the falls being dry. This suggested to me that the falls was seasonal, and I’d imagine that Spring and early Summer would be the best times to see the falls flow reliably.

Something that didn’t dawn on me until after our Norway trip in 2005, I realized that Voss was the same town that inspired the brand of bottled water company by the same name. I actually didn’t know this until a coworker bought me one of their bottled waters in a fancy art-deco-like glass bottle. The town was also said to be known for Winter sports as apparently it was said to have spawned more Winter Olympics participants than any other county in Norway. The literature also suggested to us that Voss was an adrenaline junkie town as well though that was something we didn’t engage in.

From the E16/Rv13 junction in the city of Voss, drive north on Road 13 for 12km. Tvindefossen was on the left side (west side of the road) near Tvinde Camping. Coming in the opposite direction from Oppheim, the falls was 14km to the south on the E16 to the right side of the road.

For context, Bergen was 69km (1 hour drive) west of Voss. Voss was about 5.5 hours drive (360km) west of Oslo.