Sjodalen is a wide, gently sloping

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

in Southern Norway, draining the eastern parts of

Jotunheimen Jotunheimen (; "the home of the Jötunn") is a mountainous area of roughly in southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all located in the Jotunheimen mountains, in ...

. The river Sjoa gives its name to the valley. Sjodalen is generally accepted to start at the outlet from the deep mountain-lake

Gjende Gjende or Gjendin is a lake in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Jotunheimen mountain range and also inside Jotunheimen National Park. The proglacial lake shows typical characteristics of glacial formation, bei ...

. The valley's lower end-point is, however less defined as the valley is named Heidal east of Randsverk. Perhaps the most easy definition is to state that the valley draining Sjoa is named Sjodalen in

Vågå Vågå () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

and Heidal in

Sel __NOTOC__ SEL may refer to: *Signalling Equipment Ltd, a trading name used by the British toy manufacturer J & L Randall *Finnish Food Workers' Union, a trade union in Finland *Left Ecology Freedom (''Sinistra Ecologia Libertà''), Italian political ...

municipalities.

History

The valley was traditionally used for summer farming. What is particular for the valley is the size and state of these summer farms ('' sæter'' in Norwegian). This is partly caused by the very rare tradition of winter-farming in this region. Rather than bringing the summer harvest down into the village and main farm, the farmers took the animals back up into the mountains during winter. This could be done due to the limited snow-fall in this continental climate regime. The perhaps best-known tourist site in Sjodalen itself is ''Ridderspranget''. This canyon's name means Knight's Leap and originated with the legend of Sigvat Kvie from

Valdres Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre S ...

, one of the King Haakon Magnusson's knights (''riddar''). Sigvat jumped across the river Sjoa at this narrow point in the canyon, with a beautiful girl from

. He had freed her from Ivar Gjesling successfully taking his love to

.''Ridderspranget'' (Store norske leksikon)
/ref>

Geography

In the valley-floor and low valley sides the landscape is dominated by

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

, the highest pine-forest of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Above the pine-forest and 150 m wide birch-zone before the alpine bush-vegetations leads into the higher mountains. The western side of Sjodalen is defined by the Jotun

nappe In geology, a nappe or thrust sheet is a large sheetlike body of rock that has been moved more than or above a thrust fault from its original position. Nappes form in compressional tectonic settings like continental collision zones or on the ...

, the escarpment that define the

Jotunheimen National Park Jotunheimen National Park (, ) is a national park in Norway, recognized as one of the country's premier hiking and fishing regions. The national park covers and is part of the larger area Jotunheimen. More than 250 peaks rise above an elevation ...

and these mountains reach above 2000 m above sea level. The river Sjoa feeds two

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

s on its progress down the valley:

Øvre Sjodalsvatnet Øvre Sjodalsvatnet is a lake in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Jotunheimen mountain range. The lake is located on the river Sjoa, just outside the boundary of Jotunheimen National Park. The Maurvangen campg ...

and Nedre Sjodalsvatnet. The Sjoa river is a popular place for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

, and

kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...

. Sjoa river is protected, as is the landscape surrounding the river. Restrictions are therefore set on camping near the river. Several traditional places to spend the night exists, including Randsverk camping, Hindsæter, Bessheim, Maurvangen and Gjendesheim.

References

{{reflist

External links

Ridderspranget (The Knight's Leap)
Valleys of Innlandet