This was an excursion that I had wanted to do for a couple of years and finally managed it in August 2011.

We set off on a sunny day for Heiligenblut, which took about 1 ¾ hours by car through very scenic mountain country.  We, unfortunately, didn’t have time to stop and visit the church at Heiligenblut but I would definitely recommend a visit as it is very beautiful.
                         
After a short journey we arrived at the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe at 2,369 metres.    As we had arrived early in the morning (about 11 o’clock) we were able to park quite easily in the multi-storey car park there.  It was an odd place to find such a car park but it was an excellent way of accommodating all the tourist cars.   We had a fantastic view of the Großglockner (3,798 m) – Austria’s highest mountain and also of the longest glacier in the eastern Alps, the Pasterze.    Quite strangely, we could hear the roar of the waterfalls from the opposite side of the mountain from the viewing platform but we couldn’t see the water moving downhill. 

We then retraced our route to the roundabout and carried on up to the Hochtor which, at 2,503m, is the highest point on the through road and is also the border between the provinces of Salzburg and Carinthia.  The trail used by the Celts, pack-animal traders and the Romans, leads over the crest from one portal of the 311m long tunnel to the next built in the 1930s. 

Numerous display boards illustrate the changeable history of the 4,000 year old trade route.  Unfortunately, the weather had changed and the views weren’t quite so spectacular.  As we were running out of time, we carried on the road, past the 2 kilometre side road to the Edelweißspitze which, at 2,571m, is the highest point on the Großglockner High Alpine Road and has a spectacular panoramic view of more than 30 peaks of 3,000 m.

We carried on past the Alpine Nature Show Museum, which has an exhibition on the Hohen Tauern Mountains and descended to the National Park Information Centre at Fusch where we enjoyed a very pleasant meal amidst the alpine scenery.

Clare Taylor, August 2011