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About ten years ago, while traveling in Norway, I took this picture. What you see is basically the result of an old landslide, with boulders so big, that trees growing between them look tiny.

I think this was taken somewhere between Oslo and Stavanger, but I can't locate the place on google maps. Does anyone know where this is?

Somewhere in Norway

Update

Here is another picture of this place. This is on the other side of the road. Not quite so spectacular, though.

enter image description here

If I remember correctly, this place was at a long side of a loke, I think the north or north-east side.

I also think, this place had a name, something or other with "Troll" or "Giant" (in Norwegian, of course).

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  • 4
    There are hundreds if not thousands of places in Norway that look like this.
    – gerrit
    Mar 23, 2017 at 18:44

2 Answers 2

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Visit Norway identifies it as the Gloppedalsura scree:

Gloppedalsura consists of avalanche boulders that are piled on top of an end moraine.

10,000 years ago the ice sheet that covered the area, melted away. For a period of time the massive end moraine dammed the Hunnedal river's former course, towards Veen and Vikeså, and formed a lake in Byrkjedalsgryta. The terraces in Byrkjedal at 240 metres altitude are evidence of this moraine-dammed lake. The annual cycle of frost and expanding ice broke free a vast number of boulders and rocks and sent them tumbling down the southern mountainside. This debris settled as a 100-metre thick scree on top of the moraine.

Hunnedal river and the lake in Byrkjedalsgryta were forced to find a new outlet; the water burrowed a gully from Byrkjedal towards Gilja - Giljajuvet.

Directions: Drive from Ålgård towards FV45 Dirdal and Byrkjedal. Follow signs a couple hundred metres past Byrkjedalstunet.

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  • I don't think that Gloppedalsura is correct. On the Gloppedalsura images, the lake in the background is much narrower and the langscape on the left side of the lake much steeper.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Feb 14, 2017 at 18:22
  • @Tor-EinarJarnbjo could be; I was using the references that it was between Oslo and Stavenger and that it was an old (very) avalanche. Hopefully, OP will return and add input, checking the location with his google map search. If incorrect, I'll remove.
    – Giorgio
    Feb 14, 2017 at 18:26
  • There is nothing special about Gloppedalsura. You can find such scree landscapes all over the mountaineous regions in Norway.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Feb 14, 2017 at 18:34
  • What do you mean with 'resemble'? Sure, both images show a boulder field with a lake in the background. but that's about it. The landscape around the lake seem to me completely different.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Feb 14, 2017 at 19:07
  • @Dorothy I looked up pictures of the Gloppedalsura. It is certainly very similar, but I'm not sure that this is the place I am looking for. Two more things I remembered: IIRC the place I am looking for was at the long side (north or north-east) of a lake. Gloppedalsura seems to block a short side. And I think the place had an name, something with "Troll" or "Giants" in it (in Norsk of course). I don't remember how I know this. There might have been an information board. Anyway, Gloppedalsura shows that there might be many similar places. Maybe my information is not enough to identify it.
    – Thomas Stets
    Feb 15, 2017 at 12:18
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Today I found some old GPS tracks from my journey, and managed to identify the place. It is the Urdbøurdi Scree at Arabygdi (see http://en.hardangervidda.com/Hardangervidda-National-Park/Amazing-Geographical-Features/The-Urdboeuri-Scree-Arabygdi)

"There is an enormous scree formation across the valley at the west end of the Totak lake. The Urdbøuri scree is probably the largest in Northern Europe."

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