So let’s continue with the second part of my week in and around Östersund in Northern Sweden. We decided to leave Östersund and started to explore the local areas a bit more. We headed right into the next adventures!

First, we had another stop at Ristafallet and Tännforsen because my partner hasn’t seen those before. It was great for me as well to go back to those spots and take them in again. Breathe the fresh air and enjoy myself and my partner’s company. We are ready for the next 10 days of camping! Are you, too?

I showed my partner the surrounding areas of both waterfalls and she seemed to enjoy it a lot! I mean, who wouldn’t be amazed by amazing and impressive waterfalls? I felt like that again. In the second picture below you can see how massive Tännforsen actually is!

The next stop was Handölsforsen where I took my next portfolio image that you can find here. We had to take another hiking trail uphill and as you probably know by now, uphill isn’t my favorite. But the picture was definitely worth it. That’s the reason I do a lot of the things I do. it will mostly be worth it in the end.

A suspension bridge led us over the water and let us cross. The picture on the left shows the view from the bridge. How beautiful! Little did we know at this point that we will be back sooner than we thought!

The next stop was Norway! We accidentally crossed the border to Norway several times on that day. That was wild! It first started with missing the last exit on the Swedish side. We had to continue driving to Norway to be able to turn back around. My partner has never been to Norway so that was exciting for her, as well. We didn’t know this wouldn’t be the last time for that day. So, we drove back across the border to Sweden and stopped at the very first opportunity: A small parking lot between the border itself and the Swedish custom control. And there we found the sign saying “Brudslöjan”, our destination. We read online that the hike was short and simple so we decided to skip dinner for now and start hiking. In the first picture in the gallery below you can see the first part of the trail, nice and easy. We didn’t know this would change very soon. The trail was barely marked at all so we decided to follow an hiking app on my phone instead. “The rocks are Norway” is a sentence I still laugh about. The rocks were already in Norway indeed, as you can see in the second and third picture below.

We decided to follow the trail or at least what we thought the trail was. It made us cross the border back into Sweden and back into Norway again. In the middle of nowhere. We reached a small viewpoint and finally saw the magical waterfall shining in the setting sun. We saw a stair case that led down right to the foot of the waterfall and we knew that’s where we wanted to be! That’s where I wanted to be to take photos. So we hiked all the way back to the rocks and after some time, we found the stair case. It was a little harder to find than I thought but the important part is, we made it to the foot of the waterfall! I started taking photos after I looked for a great foreground element. Did I succeed? Check it out here!

We started to get hungry so we decided to hike all the way back to the car. We stopped on the trail to view the setting sun, the last picture in the photo gallery below. How beautiful it was! I still get tears in my eyes thinking back. We hike back was easier than the hike forwards the waterfall. I can’t tell if that was because we knew where to go or because we were driven by dinner. Who knows!

Back at the car we decided for a camping spot for the night! What an exciting day we had. We decided to drive back to Handölsforsen and set up our camp there. My first time camping at a waterfall. It wasn’t too loud, my earplugs helped a lot. But it was great viewing the waterfall first thing in the morning.

One the next day, we decided to go hiking again! We were still around Åre, so we decided to hike up the mountain Trotthummeln.

That was one of the viewpoints where we took a little break to recharge our energy. Again, hiking uphill. That’s the downside of wanting to see beautiful views: A lot of them are somewhere uphill. It was still worth it! It was bad weather for photography, though. Bright blue sky and sunny weather doesn’t necessarily work with moody pictures. It was still a beautiful day to spend outdoors.

After we had those exciting and eventful days, we decided to have a relaxed evening by a nearby lake called “Helgesjön”. We could see some mountains in the distance, which was great! I fell in love with mountains a while ago. We weren’t alone there. There were also guys who wanted to go fishing soon. The conditions were promising. Until a church camp arrived. With around 50 teenagers. No more calm and quietness for us, sadly. We stayed a little longer but decided to find a camping spot for the night soon. That is just one of the great things in the North in summer, the sun barely sets. We found an old church ruin and decided this is a great spot for the night. We even heard reindeer during the night!

And this was the entire week in and around Östersund in Jämtland. Our next destination will be vildmarksvägen! I’m already excited to share those stories with you! Stay tuned and see you soon!