HOHE TAUERN PANORAMA TRAIL | STAGE: Valley of the Alps 17 | Bad Gastein - Hüttschlag

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The hiking park in the centre of Hüttschlag

The start of the last stage of the Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail is at the valley station of the Stubnerkogel cable car. To the right, past the ticket offices, a passageway leads to a glass crossing over the main road through Bad Gastein. On the other side, you turn left down to the main road and before the Shell petrol station turn diagonally right into Grillparzerstraße. Outside Hotel Salzburger Hof you turn left down the path and walk past the hotel on the left as well as past the famous Silverbullet bar. Opposite Hotel Eden Rock you take a sharp right onto a path that takes you down into the historic centre of Bad Gastein. Here you walk across the village square and then cross the spectacular waterfall over a bridge, and then keep slightly to the left until you reach the Preims church.

Here, diagonally to the right, the Kaiser Wilhelm Promenade begins. This wonderful mostly flat walk first takes you through the historic town of Bad Gastein and later through forests towards the Kötschachtal valley. When you get to a fork in the road, you walk down the path to the left in the direction of Poserhöhe. Now you cross a stream and follow the path briefly uphill to the left to a small asphalt road. You follow the path briefly to the left until a meadow path branches off to the right in the direction of Poserhöhe (path no. 514). You pass a house and the path turns into a road, before a short time later a hiking trail branches off to the right (signpost "Poserhöhe"). Soon you come across a cart track that winds its way very steeply uphill. After a while, there is a hiking trail that branches off to the left, which you must make sure not to miss (if you find yourself right in front of a hut, you missed it). This hiking trail – which crosses a cart track a few times and is still quite steep – winds its way up to Alpenhaus Poserhöhe. This alpine inn is situated like an eagle's nest and is a welcome place to stop off before the final ascent.

Here you walk through the garden of the alpine hut and follow the hiking trail on the other side, which leads straight up over alpine pastures towards the Gamskarkogel. And incidentally, the Gamskarkogel is the highest green-pastured mountain in Europe and the Gamskarkogelhütte is one of the oldest shelters in the Eastern Alps. This trail first takes you straight up and later uphill and left over some quite steep slopes to below the Tofernscharte. You walk uphill one last time over alpine pastures to get to the Tofernscharte, the last saddle on the Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail.

It's all downhill from here. A meadow trail (signpost "Hüttschlag-Ortszentrum" no. 43/502a) over beautiful alpine and forest terrain takes you past the Tofernalm farm. Then you cross an alpine road down to the Harbachalm inn – your last chance to stop off for refreshments on this stage.

Just behind the alpine hut, you shorten the next bend via a footpath, cross the alpine road and walk down the valley to the left of the stream along a hiking trail until you get to the alpine road again. You follow this road for quite a while slightly downhill and out of the valley (signpost "Hüttschlag-Ortszentrum" no. 42/502a). At one point where a forest road joins on the left, a hiking trail takes you diagonally left and downhill (signpost "Hüttschlag-Ortszentrum" no. 43/502a); the trail runs out of the valley underneath and parallel to the alpine road. At a fork in the road, you take the path leading straight ahead – the path widens at one point and turns into a wide meadow path, which you follow downhill in the same direction until you reach an asphalt road. A shortcut through the forest brings you back to the asphalt road and on to a left turn. Here you leave the asphalt road again and walk down the forest path (signpost "Hüttschlag-Ortszentrum" no. 43a). After a while you choose the lower of the two meadow paths leading down into the valley until you reach the first houses of Hüttschlag. You take the gravel path down to an asphalt road and turn right into the centre of Hüttschlag: you have now reached the end of the Hohe Tauern Panorama Trail at the hiking park!