Logar Valley – Rinka Waterfall Hiking Trail – Hiking the Alps

Reaching the starting point

You can only access the Logar valley by vehicle in one place; on the country road aptly named Logarska Dolina. It is a sideway to the regional road 428 which runs from the Austrian border passing Pavličevo sedlo in the west to the village of Radmirje further southeast. Be sure to drive along road 428 when approaching the Logar valley as Google Maps might offer you “alternative” routes on more or less passable forest dirt roads; you should all the time be driving on asphalt! If you are approaching from the northwest, you will be driving downhill most of the time; when you reach the bottom of the valley, you only have a few hundred meters before you should turn right and into the Logar valley. If you are approaching from the east, you will be driving through the valley for quite some time. The road towards the Logar valley will come up on your left about four kilometers after you have driven through the village called Solcava.

Once you have turned into the valley, you have the pay the entrance fee for the vehicle type you are driving at a small wooden hut. It was 7 euros for a car at the time of our visit; you can see a full list of current prices here. The entrance fee is only for motorized vehicles and used to maintain the road and amenities, so it is for free if you are entering by foot or bike. We then drove for about four kilometers on the asphalted road till we reached the mountain hut called Dom Planincev and parked there. You can, however, shorten or lengthen your hike by parking closer or further away from the Rinka waterfall as the Pot po Logarski Dolini starts soon after the entrance fee hut and crosses over the asphalted road multiple times. Just be sure to park on the actual parking lots, and not for example in the side of the road somewhere random.

You can park as close as on the parking lot just 10 minutes hike away from the Rinka waterfall next to the mountain hut called Dom Planincev v Logarski Dolini. Here you will also find the bus stop called “Logarska Dolina Slap”, which is the last stop for the very rare bus route here. The other bus stops in the valley are “Logarska Dolina Hotel”, next to the four-star Hotel Plesnik (about two kilometers from our starting point at Dom Planincev, so you have a six kilometers hike to the Rinka waterfall) and “Logarska Dolina Sestre”, just outside the entrance to the valley. From there it’s a nine kilometers hike to the Rinka waterfall. However, we don’t really recommend going to the Logar valley by public transport as it will take a lot of time (two hours from the city of Celje) and you have very limited departures (1-2 each way) for a limited season (30^th of April – 31^st of October).

If you insist on going by public transport, you can check the schedule for a given date by going to the respective bus company’s website Nomago.si (turn on google translate if needed), and choose “Celje AP” as the place of entry and one of the valley’s bus stops mentioned above as your destination. Select the needed date and then press the button “Prikazi vozni red”/”Show time table”. If it fails to find departures at first, then press the button called “Prikazi splosni vozni red”/”Show general time table”. You can then click on the individual departures to see what your departure options are, depending on the season and the day of the week (Monday to Friday, or Saturday-Sunday plus bank holidays). Simply switch entry point and destination to find your return. The ticket price from Celje to the last stop in the valley is 7.5 euros each way.

Trail

We started our hike from the parking place at the Dom Planincev mountain hut, approximately in the middle of the official Pot po Logarski Dolini trail. We started out by getting a good cup of coffee and an even better apple strudel from the mountain hut, which offer both food and accommodation and then headed out on the path, which is just north of the mountain hut. From there the wide dirt path runs southwest, past a large enclosure, and divides into two after less than 500 meters of walking. You take the narrower left one, which is also marked with a sign. The path narrows further as you walk on and turns more rocky. After approximately walking for one kilometer, you will reach the banks of the river Savinja, which at the time of our visit was completely dried out due to the extraordinary drought in the summer of 2022.

Upon following the river for a few hundred meters, the path crosses the asphalted road and continues up a wide gravel road that leads up to the mountain hut called Logarski Kot, which offers food and accommodation. About 20 meters from the building, you should, however, leave the wide gravel road and turn right (towards west) to follow the narrowing path towards a wooden fence with a small gateway built into it. Inside the enclosure we only encountered three donkeys, who minded their own business, but be sure to keep any dogs or wild kids close when you enter. You only walk for a few hundred meters through the enclosure, then you will again come to a gateway and leave the farm animals behind.

Shortly after, the path meets the paved road again, and now you have to follow the asphalted road for about 50 meters southwest till you see another of the trail signs showing you the continuation of the forest path along the riverbed past a large gravel parking lot. After a few hundred meters the forest path intersects with the paved road once again, but here the path continues immediately on the other side. At this point you have walked 2.5 kilometers from the starting point. After another 500 meters of walking, you come to a concrete retaining wall and a small wooden bridge crossing over the river bed. When you have crossed the bridge, you will again come to the paved road and towards southwest you will see the last parking area before the Rinka waterfall. You follow the road past the parking area and up to the small wooden huts respectively serving as a coffee bar and a gift shop with local products.

The footpath up to the Rinka waterfall starts just across from the coffee bar, and is marked with a big sign so you can’t miss it. From here, the path meanders ever more steeply upwards for almost a kilometer till you reach the waterfall. You can both go to the bottom of it as well as scramble up to the Orlovo Gnezdo (Eagles Nest’) Bar, which is built on a summit next to the Rinka waterfall. Here you can buy coffee and cold refreshments, but as it was packed when we were visiting, we just took in the amazing view of the waterfall and the surrounding mountains, and then made our way down to the coffee bar at the parking lot just in time before the heavens opened and rain started pouring down.

Getting back to the starting point

We took the same way back as we came since the Pot po Logarski Dolini is an out-and-back trail. The only alternative would be to simply follow the asphalted road back to Dom Planincev. Getting back to the starting point on the same route was still a different visual experience, though, as the woods were extra lush and glistening from the rain fall.

Jack Wolfskin JWP rain jacket came into use for the way back through the Logar valley

The Jack Wolfskin JWP rain shell packs into its own pocket, which means that it is easy to store until you need it. And I definitely needed it for making our way back to the starting point as it started raining just as we had made our way down from the Rinka waterfall. The Jack Wolfskin jacket is light, breathable and withstands heavy rain also for longer periods as it has a hydrostatic head of 20.000 mm. You can read the full review here.

Where to buy?

Jack Wolfskin JWP Rain Jacket Buy from Jack Wolfskin

The polarized lenses of the Tifosi Swoon sunglasses were ideal for the high altitude in the Logar Valley

Shortly after we began the hike, the sun started poking out from the clouds and I was thus happy to have brought the Tifosi Swoon sunglasses with me . They are lightweight, comfortable and wrap around your face in order to protect your eyes from sunlight at all angles. The category 3 lenses were just right for this relatively high altitude and the fact that they are polarized made the viewing experience all the more comfortable. You can read the full review of the Tifosi Swoon polarized sunglasses here.

Where to buy?

Tifosi Swoon Polarized Sunglasses Buy from Tifosi Optics