Handölsforsen

Handolsforsen (officially written as Handölsforsen) is one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Sweden and is located in the hamlet of Handöl, east of Enafors (Åre), in the region Jämtland , Sweden.

In Enafors, coming from the border with Norway (road E14), take the exit right to Handöl. From here it is only a 7,5 kilometer drive to Handölsforsen. Just follow the road. There are no signs but the road, a sort of, ends at a factory. I parked the car at the right side of the road.

A small blue sign (Handölsforsen 300 meter) is pointing to a road at the right. The road ends, after 300 meter, at a cafe that is closed. So probably you also can drive down and park the car there. Here you already see the suspension bridge over the wild river Åreälven.

I didn’t knew much about Handölsforsen but the waterfall surprised me much. Handölsforsen is a powerful waterfall thundering down over 40 meter. From the suspension bridge you have a nice view on the valley with the waterfall in the front.

Looking the other side, upstream, you will see three other small waterfalls/rapids nearby. First I took the path to the right after the suspension bridge. The path ends at a picnic spot where people like to make campfires. The view on Handölsforsen is amazing and you can feel (and hear) the power of the water thundering down.

A small path leads to the river where you have an even better view on the waterfall. On the left side you see a building that probably had to do something with generating energy. Later on I saw a sign in Swedish that I could read a little: the river at Handölsforsen is used for generating energy and 1,8m3/sec is taking into a pipe over a length of 1 kilometer. The total descend is 125 meter. Luckily there is enough water left to see a very very powerful Handölsforsen.

Later on (when I was checking other photo’s) I discovered there is also an upper part of Handölsforsen that looks quit impressive. I think the single drop is appr. 15 meter and is also very powerful. After the suspension bridge there is a path going left to a viewpoint on the upper part. A shame I mist this….

Best time to visit Handölsforsen is probably early summer. Because the river Åreälven falls towards the north, the daytime doesn’t really matter concerning taking pictures.

Afterwards you can go to the nice looking cafe and tourist shop in Handöl called Hanriis cafe.

Now it is also possible to walk further along the river to the hamlet Handöl but I wanted to go to two other waterfalls along road E14 and it was already 4 p.m. The two waterfall are located between Undersåker and the Norwegian border and are my favorite in Sweden: Ristafallet and Tannforsen.