Maria Weissenstein – Butterloch – Maria Weissenstein

The Buttlerloch is a delightful hike. There is an option to extend it to visit the Weissenstein with its fantastic views over the Dolomites (an additional 600 height meters and 2.5 hours). But we did not need to. The area around the village of Redagno di Sopra (great name for a village) is so pretty we were quite happy wandering around the larch tree woods. And of course visting the Butterloch. Beautful!

The gorge was formed by the Bletterbach mountain stream and is 200-300 metres wide at the top and over 400 metres deep. Apparently nowhere else in the Alps Alps or Dolomites has such perfectly preserved rock strata visible to the naked eye. So now you know!

We started the hike in Maria Weissenstein and made our way up past Alms and meadows – very, very pretty.

After an hour we came to the Butterloch. It is never too steep or difficult but a little care is needed in places.

It is impressive! There are a few impressive waterfalls, but it is simply the scale which is most impressive! We walked to the end of the gorge (as far as it is safe too go) marvelling at the rock formations.

After reaching the end we turned around and retraced our steps. We then hiked out the other side, back into the greenery of meadows and orangery of larch trees.

And even though we did not go very high up the mountain, there are stunning views across the Brenta Dolmites to the west.

A wonderful half-day hike. Thoroughly recomended!