Virtual Hike: Fusine Lakes In The Italian Alps

Who wouldn’t love a magical alpine lake? What about two? Plus some giant white granite peaks? Let us take you to Italy’s Fusine Lakes in the Julian Alps.

We’ve actually found this hike on our road trip in Slovenia’s Julian Alps. What? Yes, located only about 6 kilometres from the Slovene-Italian border, it’s a perfect stop on a Slovene road trip. It’s also a short, easy, pretty (and family-friendly) hike – so why miss it?

We take you on a virtual hike around Upper and Lower Fusine Lakes in this post. We’d like to give you something beautiful on this cloudy winter day in the middle(?) of a pandemic, and you can also use it to plan your own hike if you visit this region.

So we’re at the main parking lot at Upper Fusine Lake. It’s quite large and free of charge, but we imagine it can fill up on a nice summer day.

Beautiful Upper Lake is right there, and you can see it from every angle if you take the easy loop trail around it. Arriving early in the morning offers the advantage of being (almost) alone, and getting a chance for quiet reflections.

The loop around the Upper Lake is about 1.5 kilometres. It’s an easy hiking trail, but a hiking trail nonetheless. It’s not wheelchair accessible, and not a flat terrain either.

We especially like it because of the views of the lake from above which makes the amazing shades of turquoise stand out. But those towering giant peaks look good as a background, as well.

Once we finish the Upper Lake loop, let’s start it again. 🙂 But only to take us to the short trail that connects the two lakes so that we can hike to the Lower Lake.

Morning reflections are gone by now, but the color of the lake looks more vibrant in the strong daylight.

We reach the Lower Lake in maybe 5 minutes. The two lakes are about the same size, so the length of the Lower Lake loop is similar to the upper one, but it’s almost entirely flat terrain, and a major part of it is even accessible for strollers and wheelchairs.

There’s a restaurant and some picnic benches. Let’s take a break here, just to have a few bite of snacks and stare at the lake uninterruptedly. (Well, not counting the clouds that started to gather around those giant peaks.)

We finish the loop around the Lower Lake in drizzling, but it looks attractive, anyway. Getting back to the parking lot is the same way as we came, and we don’t mind having another look of Upper Lake.

Because the rain stopped, and it’s only early afternoon, let’s start the steep trail towards Rifugio Luigi Zacchi, a mountain hut where we’re supposed to get even closer views of the peaks. That, and a storm that finally arrives with long hours of pouring rain.

End of the day, and virtually, you can’t even get wet. (I know, I’d rather get soaking wet but be able to travel freely again.)

So how did you like the views?

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