Hiking Puez-Odle Altopiano

Today, we continued our exploration of the Dolomites, completing the 11 mile Puez-Odle Altopiano hike in the Puez-Odle Nature Park.

We started our day with coffee and breakfast at our bed and breakfast, and then immediately headed to our hike. We were able to reach our trailhead by taking a gondola up to the top of the mountain range from the edge of the town we are staying in, Selva.

At the top of the gondola we were immediately blown away by jaw dropping views. The mountains rising up all around us were truly something to behold. Rather than expound on it here, just check out the pictures as our words won’t do it justice! We hiked for a few hours until we reached the hike midway point and a rifugio, or mountain hut. The Dolomites have a very cool rifugio culture, where there are mountain huts scattered around the various hikes, where hikers can get food, shower, and even rent a room to stay the night. While they are called mountain “huts” rifugios are actually often quite large, with seating for 50+ people to get a meal, and many waiters and chefs working to support the many hikers stopping by. We stopped at this rifugio(called rifugio Puez) and had drinks and a cheese and meat plate to give us some energy for the next leg of the hike.

We started hiking again, making our way from the mountain tops into the valley they surround. It was really neat to see multiple waterfalls cascading around us as we descended, and there were also streams bubbling out from the rock itself!

The valley itself was coated with wildflowers, so it was quite the spectacle when we made our way down. In addition, there were cows and sheep grazing, and we enjoyed checking out the wildlife. Eventually after a LOT of walking, we made our way back into town and grabbed dinner at the restaurant across the street from our bed and breakfast(Chris didn’t want to walk further 😂) After that we called it a night, as today was a doozy, and we have more exploration tomorrow!Read more