The Upper Sava Valley is known for its spectacular landscapes, dominated by lush forests and craggy peaks. Some of the moist interesting landscapes however, are tucked away far below Mount Špik in the Valley of the Martuljek Waterfalls.

Visitors who enter this area on the northern edge of the Triglav National Park first proceed through an impressive canyon, where the air is pleasantly cool even on the hottest summer days. The canyon was carved over the millennia by the Martuljek stream as the water cut into the local limestone and made its way across an old glacial moraine. To this day, the canyon is geologically unstable; rock slides are common, and wooden paths often need to be repaired or even replaced after winter storms.

A relatively short walk above the canyon rewards visitors with a magnificent sight – the Lower Martuljek Waterfall. The slender fall, whose largest cascade measures some 30 meters, is surrounded by rocky cliffs and coniferous trees and looks like something out of a fairytale.

A longer walk – around an hour and a half – takes hikers to the Upper Martuljek Waterfall. There is less vegetation here, but the overall height of this fall is even more impressive: the water descends some 100 meters in four separate cascades as it makes its way down a face of sheer rock and into a large, crystal clear pool at the bottom.

Less spectacular but in many ways just as attractive are extensive meadows between the two waterfalls. The landscape here is so peaceful that it once served as a retreat for priests, who operated a hut in the area. A chapel from that time still survives and is named for Fran Saleški Finžgar, a writer who visited the area to find inspiration.

For generations, the area here, known as Jasenje, served as a pasture for the villages of the Upper Sava Valley. This is where livestock would graze in the summer and hay was harvested for the winter months. (It was taken down into the valley by ox carts.) The tradition slowly died out over the years, but a mountain hut at Jasenje still gives visitors a chance to taste traditional farm food of the Slovenian mountains.

Even though word about the exceptional beauty of the Martuljek Waterfalls is slowly spreading, the area remains one of the best-kept secrets of the Triglav National Park.