Driving 4 hours for some Photos - Wolfsschlucht

Saturday afternoon I saw a video on YouTube of a cool looking gorge with lots of big mossy boulders and trees and waterfalls of course ... I have to go there, I thought immediately.

Wolfsschlucht - Wolfs Gorge
Bad Kreuzen, Upper Austria

I asked my wife if she had made plans for the weekend, but she hadn't made any except of having a lazy weekend at home. It was late afternoon already when I told her that I'll sleep in my van an about 4 hours drive away.
She said "fine" and so I grabbed my camera bag, hopped in my van and drove from the south of Austria to almost the northern border.
It was raining and already almost dark when I arrived at a quite huge gravel parking lot of the Wolfsschlucht / Wolfs Gorge in Bad Kreuzen, Upper Austria.

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I'm still not very used of sleeping in my van and especially when I'm completely alone in darkness at or in a forest, although I could see the road from the parking lot at the beginning of the path through the Wolfsschlucht.
I have to admit that it's sometimes a little bit scary when I hear strange noises in the night.

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My parent's house is right at the foot of a mountain and only a few meters away from a forest. There's also a brook running by and so you might think that I should be used of these nightly sounds. And you are right, when I sleep in my parent's house I enjoy every tone - it's music in my ears.
But when I'm in an unknown area the same sounds seem to be different ... I know that I'll get used of it, I just have to do it more often 😁

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Enough of that ... after a more or less restless sleep I got up at about 5:15 in the morning and half an hour later I was on the path into the gorge. The rain had stopped and the sky was overcast.
Although the sun had not risen yet, it wasn't too dark to take photos, but I had to increase the ISO value quite a bit to get faster shutter speeds for to keep some texture in the fast flowing water.

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After a few minutes walking above the creek I was at the first waterfalls and the green colour of the trees and the boulders was awesome. Here in the north it was already more spring like than in the south where I'm living. Fresh green leaves and I could also see some flowers - beautiful.

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The gorge isn't very long but there are a few steps to climb upwards through the forest.
It's an old grown woodland and most trees are overgrown with moss. I love such places and this one will certainly see me again in a couple of weeks when Spring will have fully arrived.

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At the end of the gorge, or better said at the place where I turned around and went back, you can go further and a circular path will also lead you back to the parking lot. There's also a place called "Speck Alm" on the way where you can have something to eat and to drink.

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Just like most times when I'm somewhere touristy, the first other people arrived when I was back at the car. By being early I often have the whole place for me alone 😀

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All in all it was a great experience to be there and I definitely do not regret my decision to drive 4 hours one way. If I hadn't had to work on Monday, there would have been another gorge nearby, but that way I would have come back home much too late ... there will be another day 😉

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The image above is my favourite from that morning and next time I want to spend some more time right at this place where I also turned around to go back the same way I had come.

Thanks a million for scrolling down till here ... hopefully you liked what you saw 😊

Information

^{All photos were taken with the Canon EOS R and one of these lenses: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM, Canon EF 16-35mm 1:4 L IS USM, Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 L STM, SIGMA 105mm 1:2,8 DG MACRO HSM.
If you are interested in the image data, I leave all EXIF and IPTC information stored in the pictures.}

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^{Photos and Text: @johannpiber | Johann Piber | All rights reserved - do not use without my permission
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