It’s literary like walking into a fairytale. The first feeling we get (well – maybe just me) is to start twirling and singing. We are signed up on a mineral hike in Sportgastein and after struggling with a malfunction of the toll road cash register we ended up coming at the last minute. However, all the stress disappears as soon as the hike starts.

Entering the Hohe Touern National Park

Sportgastein is located inside the Alp’s biggest national park Hohe Touern. There is a guard booth by the entrance to the National park and the entrance fee is 5,50 euros per person or 5 euros if you have the Gastein card. We drove from the camping to the National park and when we arrived, I took out my credit card. The problem was that the machine had broken so he could only take cash.

We are ALWAYS prepared and in our world cash is king. However, this was the first time that we didn’t have cash with us. We called our guide and he helped us to get into the park. I ended up leaving my driver’s license at the guard, who let us through. This is not a common problem but make sure to always bring cash in case this happens while you are visiting the park.

The Mineral Hike At Sportgastein

The mineral hike at Sportgastein is free of charge for everyone that has the Gastein card. And since the card is free of charge, there’s no need to not get it. So, the mineral hike took us through the most amazing valleys and we got to see the alps during summer and just enjoy ourselves. The tour was mainly in Austrian and since we don’t speak that language we got a shorter version in English.

But, even though the English version was a lot shorter than the Austrian one, we just enjoyed the view and didn’t feel like we were missing out. The thing is that the views are so incredible that you don’t need any information. While walking along the path we saw a lot of cows. I love cows so I was literary in heaven. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to touch the animals 🥺.

Hike the Hohe Touern National During Summer

During the winter, Sportgastein is well known for its skiing. But, during summer it transforms into a paradise for hikers. This is the place to be for everyone that wants to enjoy a hike of a lifetime. The whole hike that we did was about six kilometers and it was a really easy walk at all times. We had such a great time and my favorite part was the sounds of the cow’s bells as they were grazing.

The bells around their necks were making the most awesome sounds and the cows didn’t mind us being there amongst them. After walking for about one hour, we came to a dried-out spring and had a break. But, it was a different kind of break because now we got to search for minerals.

ALSO CHECK OUT OUR ARTICLE ABOUT THE THERMAL BATHS IN BAD HOF GASTEIN

The search For Minerals At Sportgastein

There are a lot of different minerals to search for. Our main goal was to find a crystal. Everyone in our group strolled around looking for the different gems. In the end, Mini ended up finding, not one – but two crystals. I also found several nice different minerals that I decided to keep. Because here you are allowed to keep the minerals you find. How awesome is that?!

We all kept gathering around our guide, asking him about the different rocks that we found. After spending about 45 minutes here, we all walked back to the parking and all went in different ways. The Mineral walk in Sportgastein is something that we really recommend everyone to do. It’s such a nice hike and we are sure that you will love it!

Take time to see all the flowers and plants

One of the highlights for Mini was watching all the flowers and plants that are found here. Because there are a lot of flowers here during summer. We got to try one plant that is used in a regular Gin and Tonic and you could really taste the taste of the tonic. Mini spent a lot of time taking pictures of some colorful flowers and he got to know that some of them are poisonous.

The ground was covered with grass and amongst that – all the wonderful flowers. This part is best shown in pictures…