Soca Valley and the Julian Alps

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We stayed in the small village of Soça in the beautiful Triglav National Park area of the Julian Alps. We had hoped to stay longer in this area but accommodation was all booked up so we packed a lot into a few days. It’s an absolutely beautiful region with alpine mountains, meadows and river valleys. We managed two hikes in the area, the easier one along the Soça river, called appropriately the Soça Valley walk.

The highlight (for us of Slovenia and the holiday) was a big hike up from the tourist office in the village of Trenta to the mountain hut near the 7 lakes called Zasavska Koca na Prehodavcih. Trenta is at 620m and the hut at 2 071m elevation. The 3 ½ hours it took to make the climb up started through pine forest, interestingly the walking trail cut up through a zig-zagging path created in WWI as this valley had Italians on one side and the Austrians on the opposite side of the valley in fierce fighting for two years, and this trail was where mules carried ammunition up the mountain.

Once out of the forest the true majesty of the mountains appears. Pale grey limestone is very bright on this sunny day and the rest of the walk was quite exposed and more steep than the trail through the trees. It’s enjoyable to do a walk where there’s not just one view from the top but views all the way up, and this was one of the best. After a rest at the mountain hut at the top, that was surprisingly busy, we headed down a slightly different route through a different (steeper) valley than the way up, missing out the pine forest and ending instead with a walk along the valley of a dry river for the last hour. It was a full and tiring day but very satisfying.

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