Utladalen (or ''Utladal'') is a valley in

Årdal Municipality Årdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Årdalsfjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Årdalstangen is the administrative center of the municipality. The other main village is � ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

county,

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 ...

. It stretches north from the village of

Øvre Årdal Øvre Årdal is a village in Årdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is the larger of the two primary villages in Årdal. The village is situated at the northern end of the long lake Årdalsvatnet, with the village of Årdalstangen at ...

into the neighboring

Luster Municipality Luster is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative centre is the village of Gaupne. Other villages in Luster include Fortun, Hafslo, Indre ...

. The Avdalen and Fardalen valleys branch off of the main Utladalen valley. Utladalen is Norway's deepest valley. The main valley, when measuring from

is long and is surrounded by dozens of mountain peaks that are all more than in height. From Øvre Årdal, a comfortable walking road has been constructed, funded by voluntary contributions. The road passes through the Vetti farm area and crosses the Utla river on four spectacular bridges. The walking path ends at one of Norway's tallest waterfalls,

Vettisfossen Vettisfossen is one of Norway's tallest waterfalls, and the 284th tallest in the world. It is located in the Jotunheimen mountain range inside the Utladalen Landscape Protection Area in Årdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The waterfa ...

. Since Utladalen is considered to be unique in Norway and internationally, the Utladalen Landscape Protection Area was established along with the adjacent Jotunheim National Park in 1980 and covers about . It includes both the valley and areas that extend both westward and northward to Jotunheim National Park, and eastward to lake Tyin.

Name

The official form on maps is ''Utledalen''. The first element is the genitive of the river name ''Utla'' and the last element is the finite form of ''dal'' which means "dale" or "

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 ...

". The river name is probably derived from the verb ''utle'' which means "drift" or "fly"—the many waterfalls of the river creates a mist in the bottom of the valley. Avdalsfossen Utladalen 4

References

External links

Map of Jotunheimen National Park and Utladalen Landscape Protection Area
Årdal Luster, Norway Valleys of Vestland {{Vestland-geo-stub