Balåifossen

From the town of Ulvik follow Route 300 towards the small town of Osa, for just under 5km to where the road parallels the Osafjord. There are several small pullouts along the water where the falls can be seen on the opposite side of the fjord. The falls can also be distantly seen from Route 572 as it climbs up the hillside from Ulvik en route to Espelandsdalen and Granvin.Balåifossen is a very tall but low volume and inconsequential multi-step waterfall found along the Osafjord in Ulvik. The falls’ namesake stream drains from several modest tarns perched over 1,000 meters above the sea and upon reaching the edge of the fjord the stream skips, veils and plunges for a total of approximately 700 meters (2,295 feet) in a long chain of falls before ending on an alluvial fan and flowing more calmly into the sea. Because the drainage area feeding into the falls is quite small, the volume of water flowing over the falls is rather low – even during periods of peak flow – and as a result the falls may not flow consistently throughout the year (and may even dry out entirely in the late summer months without consistent precipitation to replenish the stream flow).