What to know about Hiking to Pulpit Rock

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Hiking to Pulpit Rock in Norway has been high up on my Bucket List for about a year now. The opportunity struck to make this bucket list item a reality when my Norwegian friend (& wife and children) decided to go back to Norway for a visit.

After making plans to do this hike with my friends, we’ll call them ‘The Vikings’, I began researching to make sure I was prepared for this hike!

What You Want To Know

Pulpit Rock car park is located about a 45 minute drive from Stavanger in Norway’s West. To get there, you follow the road out of Stavanger city, past Sandnes until you reach the ferry crossing to get to the other side of the Fjord…as you do.

After reaching the other side of the Fjord, it’s about another 5-10 minutes drive past some stunning scenery before you are parked and ready for the hike.

The hike itself took The Vikings and I 95 minutes to reach Pulpit Rock and almost the same amount of time to get back to the car park. We spent at least an hour at Pulpit Rock admiring the view 🙂

The Hike

Alright, so now to the nitty gritty. This hike, whilst I had read was quite easy, WAS NOT EASY! I suffer from asthma and so I find that I can do the walking part all day, but ask me to climb rocks over and over again for 20 minutes and my lungs are not equipped to handle this.

The hike was however, very pleasant for the most part! The terrain changed from a sandy pathway, to walking on bridges through marsh lands, to climbing up large rocks, to walking across massive rock faces, dodging streams, passing lakes and finally, treading carefully when faced with the very edge of the cliffs at your finish line.

Due to the constant changing scenery of the hike, the hike felt easier to do because there was always something new to keep you occupied.

The Tourists

At Pulpit Rock were quite a lot of people. However, I think we missed the majority of tourists because we didn’t even start our hike until 1:30pm. The height of the tourist arrival time is between 12noon and 2pm, so either go early, or go late. Avoid the tourists at all costs!

The Hiking Stick

Here’s something we encountered during the hike time and time again. People with real hiking sticks. Not something fashioned out of a tree, but a professional walking stick. Firstly I was not expecting to see this since Pulpit Rock is marketed as an easy walk.

However, my favourite was seeing people walking with a professional walking stick in EACH HAND. What is that about? Someone please tell me! We named one girl we kept seeing on our hike ‘Stix’ because she was constantly on the verge of falling over because her sticks were unruly, or maybe she just wasn’t capable of carrying both..!

The Hike Reward

Once we reached Preikestolen, we were blown away. Both because of the view and because it was so darn windy!

One of the Vikngs was not down with the wind and found a place to take some shelter from the wind, while the other Viking and I found ways to have our picture taken as near the edge as we could go.

Seeing the Fjords from up here is something I can never forget. It was awe-inspiring.

It was one of those things that, having gotten that far, you tell yourself that if you lived in Stavanger, you’d hike here every weekend. I’m sure that wouldn’t actually happen, but in the moment – there’s nothing better I’d want to do with my life that come back for this view again and again.

Up on Pulpit Rock, I figured this could be the one and only time I hike here, so I had to get ALL THE PHOTOS.

Here is my Preikestolen photoshoot.

  
  
What you simply must do while up there, is go just behind the rock where there is a little extra climb to get a different view of the rock.

The Hike Back

The Hike back was not nearly as fun as the way to the Rock. The anticipation was over, and all that was left was lactic acid, tiredness, sweat, and the desire to guzzle a coca cola.

I tripped 7 times on the way down, and rolled my ankle each time. However, as we were trying to beat our time from the way up, we did not stop to rest.

The hike down I found to be more difficult because you needed to tread extra carefully so as not to trip (I obviously didn’t be careful enough!) and also the constant downhill made a big impact on my knees.

By the time we had finished and reached the car park, our bums were made of steal, our knees were on the verge of collapse and tshirts needed to be changed. I got the coke I had dreamed about for the 90 minute journey down and we got in the car for our drive to Farsund, a small town in the Fjords where The Vikings parent’s live.

Hiking to Pulpit Rock was exhilarating! It was also more difficult than I had expected, however it can be done in about 1.5-2 hours. I recommend this hike to anyone of any fitness level, since you can stop for rest breaks along the way, as long as you get to the top.

REWARDING doesn’t even come close to describing the feeling of accomplishment that comes when you reach the top.

Have you hiked in Norway?

I made a video of my time in Norway with Magisto. Watch it here.

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About Lesley

Australian expat, married to a Dutch guy, living in Amsterdam. Previously lived in London for 3 years, too! Lover of travel, coffee, brunch, beaches, fresh flowers, and family. Now a new mum, navigating life with a baby!