The Großglockner Hochalpenstraße

There are many great drives in the world, including some in Utah.  One that is surely on the list is the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (Grossglockner High Alpine Road) in the Hohe Tauern National Park of Austria.  

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is the highest surfaced road in Austria, reaching 2504 meters (8215 feet).  There is also a cobblestone spur road that will take you to the 2572 meter summit of the Edelweissspitze. We drove the road from north to south and then back in the same day.  It's not peak season here yet, so parking and pulloffs were not busy, but still the road was full of tourists (like us), bicycles, motorcycles, Porsches, and various "supercars."

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road was built in the 1930s and reminded me of the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park and other National Park scenic roads in the US that were built in that same era.  It takes a sinuous route to and from the high altitudes.  

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road from Edelweißspitze

Our route took us first up the Fuscher Valley, a deep U-shaped valley with as much as 2400 meters of relief to the highest peaks.  Cascades and waterfalls tumble through green meadows.  It's very spectacular.

The higher elevations were more glaciated even only a few years ago.  Interpretive stops discussed ice falls from calving glaciers that no longer extend from flatter areas to the edge of steep terrain.  Austrian glaciers are not just retreating but disintegrating.  

After crossing two mountain passes, we began to descend into the Mölltal (Möll Valley).

Eventually we took a side road 8 km to the Kaiser Franz Josef viewpoint of the Grossglockner, Austria's highest peak (3798 meters).  Beneath the Grossglockner is the Sandersee is a glacier lake that began to form in the 1950s due to the melting of the Pasterze glacier.  Currently, the Pasterze glacier is Austria's largest glacier, but that may change soon.  There is a narrow neck, known as the Hufeisenbruch, that connects the upper and lower Pasterze (red circle).  That neck is narrowing and the Pasterze expected to split in two in the near future.  When that happens, it will be classified as two separate glaciers. 

The Kaiser Franz Josef viewpoint is beautiful but about as industrialized as you can imagine.  It has a massive parking garage and even a long tunnel that will take you through the mountain if you want to hike to the upper Pasterze.

Fortunately it wasn't very busy while we were there.  

Near the southern end of the road is the mountain village of Heiligenblut.  If you go to the right place, you can find a quintessential view of their church and the Grossglockner.  

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is a toll road and for a vehicle it is 46 euro for day pass.  It's a touch cheaper for a motorcycle and completely free for a bicycle, although accident insurance is recommended and costs 4 euro (mountain rescue in Austria can be costly).  

One tip is to stay at a hotel or guesthouse that is a partner with the National Park Summer Card.  THe summer card gives you a free day of access to the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and you can get free access to one of the sixty attractions included in it each day.  For example, one day we visited the Krimml Waterfalls and other day we used the Rudolfhutte cable cars for hiking.  Such cards are common in the Alps and worth looking into.  For this trip, we rented a car (it was my first time driving in over 3 months!), but for others, such visitor cards often provide free transit access.