The route starts at the Slovenian Alpine Museum, where there is also an info point of the Triglav National Park. Continue along the river, Triglavska Bistrica Trail, where info points are waiting for you along the way. The trail passes the Peričnik waterfall and the Galleries all the way to the headwaters of the Vrat valley. There, the last info point on the way offers an insight into the history of mountaineering in the North Triglav Wall.

Walk along the Triglavska Bistrica

Slovenian Alpine Museum

A museum where the past meets the present. An extensive collection of items with diverse historical stories, rich photographic and archive material, and a comprehensive professional booklet give the visitor the chance to grasp the popularity and importance of mountaineering in the Slovenian territory. Explore the museum.

Lake Kreda

When a cement factory started operating in 1893 in the area of “Fabrka”, chalk (Slovene: kreda) for cement production was mined in the area nearby. When the mining ceased, the lake basin with water inflow from the brook became a small lake.

Triglavska Bistrica stream and birds

The Triglavska Bistrica stream is an important habitat for various animals, including birds. The whitethroated dipper, the grey and white wagtail, the European robin and the Eurasian wren are regular visitors on the stream bank. Higher in the rocks above the stream, we can find crag martins and wallcreepers.

Cinclus cinclus

The wonderful world of plants

Living conditions in the high mountains are very difficult. Plants have adapted in many ways to long and cold winters, short summers, low temperatures, strong ultraviolet radiation, wind, water scarcity and shallow, nutrient-depleted soils. Some with intense flower colour and dwarf, cushion-like growth, others with fleshy or hairy leaves, others with embryonic buds.

Edelweiss

Leontopodium alpinum

In the 19th century, it became a symbol of Alpine flora and was severely threatened by ripping. It was the first protected plant in Slovenia. In Goriška, it was protected as early as 1896.

The diversity of the animal world

The Triglav National Park is rich in diversity, with a multitude of animal species from microscopically small to relatively large mammals found in the waters and on land. Within the Triglav National Park there are around 7000 different species. This diversity is due to climatic conditions, topography, geology and habitat diversity.

Chamois

Rupicapra rupicapra

It is the most characteristic animal of the Alpine world. They are social animals, with only older goats being solitary. The natural enemies of adult chamois are the wolf and the lynx, and the golden eagle also attacks young chamois.

Alpine beech forest

The Alpine beech forest is a plant community typical of the lower slopes of Alpine valleys. The main tree species in the Alpine beech forest are beech, spruce, larch, fir and red pine. In the ground layer of the forest, the most common plants are common liverwort, spring heath, common cyclamen and black holly. In the Vrata valley, the common cowslip and the lily of the valley are also found.

Peričnik waterfall

During the last ice age, the glacier cut into the conglomerate, deepening the valley and creating a picturesque, almost 100-metre-high conglomerate sill, over which the Peričnik waterfall falls in two stages today.

The galleries

The Pleistocene conglomerate sill, composed of differently resistant layers, was unevenly eroded by the Triglavska Bistrica stream. In some places it has been hollowed out to form picturesque galleries or 'sheds', with overhangs above them as part of the undercutting.

˝Rovti˝

In the Vrata valley, there are typical "rovtes" or grazing areas, which have their own names: the Šimencev rovt, the Cenkov rovt, the Poldov rovt, the Turkov rovt ... During the summer season, farmers graze their cattle there, thus making an important contribution to preserving the cultural landscape and biodiversity. 

Jakob Aljaž and the Aljaž House in Vrata valley

Priest, composer, poet and builder of the huts in Vrata and Kredarica, the Aljaž Tower, the weather station and the chapel at Kredarica, and designer of many trails in the Julian Alps, including the Tominšek Route, which is known as the first Slovenian Route to Triglav.

Mountaineering

The most important milestones in the conquest of the North Triglav Wall were set by local climbers. Among the most important ascents are the climbed routes in Sfinga. Today, there are hundreds of climbing routes and variants across the Wall.

North Triglav Wall

The mighty North Triglav Wall reigns over the Vrata valley. It is more than three kilometres wide and on average 1000 metres high. It is one of the three largest walls in the Eastern Alps. The wall is a symbol of Slovenian mountaineering.

Geology

The North Triglav Wall is lined with numerous well-defined layers of varying thickness of Upper Triassic Dachstein limestone.The uplift of the Julian Alps has subjected the normal sequence to folding and uplift, so that today the older rocks lie on top of the younger ones. The top of Triglav (above Stena) is thus not made of layered limestone, but of older, massive Upper Triassic limestone.

Protective forest

In protective forests, all actions are subordinated to maintaining and enhancing the protective function. Trees intercept part of the snowfall with their canopies and prevent the snow cover from moving with their trunks. They also stop falling stones.