Logar Valley
September 11, 2025
The rain seems to have mostly stopped, although there were mist and clouds around Bled as we left the lakeside town. We had originally planned to go to the high plateau at Velika Planina; however, when checking the website for the cable car schedule, we learned that a lightning strike a few days before had closed both the cable car and chair lift to the plateau. Given all of the rain yesterday, we were reluctant to drive on a dirt road (the alternative route to the plateau) to the parking lot for a hike.
We instead visited the town of Kamnik, which we enjoyed quite a bit. The town (population about 14,000) has a very well preserved old center, with colorful buildings, many festooned with flags in anticipation of an upcoming heritage festival.
We took a peek in the church adjacent to the Franciscan Monastery. The interior was mostly baroque with a frescoed ceiling. There was also one side chapel designed by Plečnik. We couldn’t figure out how to visit the Monastery’s library with its ancient books so we continued our stroll through town. Here are the church interior and the Plečnik chapel.
We then continued through the old town and walked up to Zaprice Castle, which contains the Kamnik Museum. The museum houses a large collection of artifacts, some from as long ago as 10,000 BC. The highlight was the section dedicated to the dairy industry and cheese making at Velika Płanina. We were sorry not to be able to have visited the real thing, but this was a close second.
We found Kamnik quiet and very attractive.
So, yes, this is photo of a photograph, but it shows what Velika Planina would have looked like if we’d been able to go there. This is from the display in the very nice museum.
Here is the map for our drive today.
After leaving Kamnik, and starting our journey to the Logar Valley, we stopped for lunch at the small town of Luče, where we had the Slovenian dumplings called domači žlinkrofi, which were quite tasty. One of us had them filled with mushrooms and the other, dried pears with honey.
We then continued our journey up to the mountains and decided to drive on one of the scenic roads for a bit before entering Logar Valley. The road turned to gravel in places, and the clouds hugged the mountaintops, so after a bit we turned around.
We stopped briefly in the town of Solčava, with its nice church. The mountain exhibition we had wanted to see wasn’t open for visitors. We drove a few minutes from there to the entry to the Logar Valley, where we paid the €10 entry fee. The beginning of the valley was open with green grass and tall mountains, but about half way up, the floor became densely forested and the views of the mountains were somewhat obscured. This first photo was taken from near the entry station.
At the end of the road, we parked near the Rinka Waterfall. After debating whether it was going to rain or not, we decided to set out on a hike. These next two photos were taken near the parking lot.
This was a rare time where the suggested walking time of 15 minutes matched our time! The trail was steep and covered with gravel. We were rewarded with a view of roaring waterfall (given all of the rain that fell yesterday). At ninety meters tall, this is the second highest waterfall in Slovenia.
Rinka waterfall, shown on left; and two other waterfalls swelled by rain, on right.
We then drove back down the valley for about ten minutes to our hotel which has a lovely location staring up at the Kamnik–Savinja Alps.
Our hotel above and the waterfall behind it, to the right.
Two more photos from near the hotel, the last just before the sun set.
After looking at the Plesnik waterfall behind the hotel, we spent the rest of the afternoon admiring the mountains from the terrace. This was a wonderful cap to our time in Slovenia. Tomorrow we head to Italy.
