"The most beautiful valley in Norway"
Innerdalen is a valley north of the much longer valley Sunndalen and parallel to it. You can get there by leaving the main route on Alvundeid and drive eastwards a little more than ten kilometres up the valley Viromdalen. Unless you have a four wheel drive and a permission to continue, which you won't get, you use the free parking and continue on foot. The first part of the road is very steep, but if you are in good shape, you can reach the top of the road in half an hour, and that's right here. There is a small brook with cold drinking water a few metres away. Then there is an easy walk 2–3 kilometres to Renndølsetra and Innerdalshytta.
(2005-05-28)
Since the previous year the owner of the whole valley, Eystein Opdøl, had cleared off a lot of forest, enabling the visitors to enjoy the view of both the lower lake and the Innerdalen Tower. The altitude of the Tower is 1452 metres and the Tower Mountain behind reaches 1521 metres.
(2006-08-23)
It's autumn and there is a lot of shadows in the valley. In a couple of months the sun will shine mainly on the mountain tops, but nobody has lived here through the winter for many years.
(2005-10-05)
View from the valley Renndalen north of Innerdalen. The mountains to the left are Tårnet (the Tower) and Tårnfjellet and to the right Skarfjellet. The brook comes from the valley Giklingdalen.
(2006-08-23)
There are two lakes in Innerdalen. This rock lies in the brook between small upper end larger lower lake. In the background Skarfjellet (1790 m).
(2005-10-05)
The first members of the present Innerdal family came to Innerdalen in 1830. Olav Innerdal (1918–2004) lived in this house with his wife Betzy.
(2005-10-05)
Olav Innerdal outside his front door in 1954. The porch was evidently added later.
During the 1950s the popularity of mountaineering rose and Innerdalen became a centre for this activity. Olav Innerdal was a skilled mountaineer himself, and together with mountaineer organizations (Norsk Tindeklubb and a group at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim) he started mountaineering courses in 1963. These courses are still arranged.
During the winters it has often been difficult to go to and from the valley. The thickness of the snow layer has been up to three metres, and one winter the road got glazed with thick and wet ice. Trying to go down the long steep part of the road might have ended in a coffin, so Olav telephoned his friends in the mountaineering group in Tronheim, and they came, bringing the necessary equipment.
Innerdalshytta, the mountain lodge built by Olav's grandfather in 1889. Here many mountain hikers have spent the night, and so have participants of the mountaineer course. In 2004 started a cooperation with Kristiansund og Nordmøre turistforening (KNT), a subsidiary of the Norwegian Tourist Association, and after that the old lodge has been restored.
(2006-08-23)
The building to the right is the old Innerdalshytta, and closest to the camera stands the old barn, which has been transformed to an annexe of the tourist lodge. Behind the barn stands the old farmhouse, a storehouse and the newest lodge.
(2012-08-15)
Olav and Betzy's son Iver took over the tourist business in 1984. Together with his wife Torill he built this new tourist lodge, opened in 1989. In the background Skarfjellet and the upper lake.
(2005-10-05)
The newest lodge with the Tower behind. In the old lodge you had to provide your own food etc, but this is more like a hotel.
(2005-10-05)
Another view of the "new" lodge. Iver and Torill are getting old and they have nobody to take over. In 2021 they sold everything to KNT, the local tourist association they had cooperated with since 2004. They plan to live in the old farm house in summer, that's where Iver grew up.
(2005-10-05)
The whole valley is owned by the Opdøl family, now by Eystein Opdøl. Opdøl is a farm down at the Sunndal Fjord and Innerdalen used to be the summer pastures of this farm. The picture shows Renndølsetra in spring. It has been the farm's summer dairy since 1740, and it still is, but for many years the activity has been geared towards tourist accommodation.
(2005-05-28)
Autumn view of Renndølsetra. In the 1960s there were plans to build am hydroelectric power plant utilizing water running through Innerdalen and the side valley Renndalen. As this would have spoiled the idyllic landscape, it was strongly opposed by Øystein, the grandfather of Eystein, the present owner. He succeeded, and the Innerdalen landscape has been protected by law since 1967 and the watercourse since 1973.
(2005-10-05)
The pasture on Renndølsetra and the Tower. The Tower is easily climbed from the other side, but the side facing the valley is for serious mountaineering.
(2006-08-23)
Goats are not common farm animals in this district. They are too active – eating things the neighbours want to keep. But I suppose the children love them. These goats don't look like belonging to a common goat race.
(2012-08-15)
Renndølsetra has been awarded the St.Olaf's Rose, a seal of quality, by the organization Norwegian Heritage.
The lower lake. Its outlet goes through a part of that enormous scree (talus) below Skarsfjellet, therefore the water level depends on the flow into the lake.
(2006-08-23)
