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Hiking trail

Trail along the Edge

One of the Vipava Valley’s most picturesque trails takes hikers along the edge of the Gora Plateau, providing spectacular views of the Vipava Valley, and beyond the Karst Plateau to the gulfs of Piran and Trieste. The relatively easy trail winds past rocky ridges and meadows that are brimming with flowers in the summer.

Starting point: the large gravel parking lot next to the monument Mati Gora.

The first beautiful view of the upper Vipava Valley hits you right in the parking lot, with Ajdovščina right in front of you and Vipava and Mount Nanos off in the distance. The trail begins at the scenic overlook and heads off eastward, as you also see from the info board. From there you will trek through forests and grassy meadows, slowly ascending and descending along the well-marked path. Follow the blazes that mark the Slovenian Mountain Hiking Trail, which the Trail along the Edge is a part of. Before long the trail climbs to a peak before turning down towards Orlovca, a high rocky overhang along one of the many trails down into the valley. It becomes harder to follow the trail at this point, as it runs along the Gora Plateau the whole time, traversing meadows where cows go to pasture all year round and are accordingly penned behind electric fences. Landowners have made sure there are places to safely enter and exit the meadows without worrying about an electric shock. We can return the favor by ensuring the gates are shut behind us. Walking further takes you to the summit of Dolski Maj, where there is a platform erected for taking in the view, along with the guest book. The trail is well-marked from there, leading past Otliški Maj (847 m) and onward to the Otlica Natural Window (Otliško okno). At the chapel right before you arrive at the Otlica Window the trail turns downward and leads to the source of the Hubelj River. A little bit ahead on the right the Otlica Window comes into view, the attraction formed naturally from the karst terrain, but the trail is wild in this part. Once past the Otlica Window the trail is again well-marked, and now it winds along a grassy karst ridge in the direction of Sinji vrh. To get there pass the summit of Navrše (857m) on to the power line running from Ajdovščina to Trnovo Plateau, where your path will be joined by another hiking trail, the Šturje trail coming from Ajdovščina.  There is an option at the power lines of turning toward Sinji Vrh, where a half an hour or so of walking will lead to an agritourism farm from where a trail goes down to Podrta Gora. Another option is following from the power lines a trail along the edge of the Gora Plateau, past Štorski Kal to a pillar with a cross on Podrta Gora. There is another hiking trail found underneath the cross by the chapel, descending toward Ajdovščina; this trail used to be the main connection between the village of Gozd and the rest of the valley. After leaving Podrta Gora the trail skirts the inside edge of the plateau towards Kovk. Just ahead is Kovk’s popular launch site for paragliders and hang-gliders. The summit of Kovk (961 m), the highest peak on the edge of the Trnovo Plateau between Predmeja and Col, has plenty of blazes and other signs pointing you in the right direction. There are trenches right below the peak that Austro-Hungarian soldiers dug for the 3rd line of defense in the battles for the Soča River during World War I. Leaving the summit behind you will follow the marked path through the forests and meadows on the northern slope of Veliki Greben to Mali Greben, where the path opens up into a broad gravel road. This quickly turns into a paved road in the village of Žagolič, which is just mere minutes from Col.

Info

Difficulty: medium
Length: 14,3 km
Duration: 5 h
Ascent: 382 m
Descent: 382 m
Lowest point asl.: 622 m
Highest point asl.: 961 m