Planina Jezerca - Kompotela

Access to starting point:
A) From the Ljubljana–Jesenice highway, take the Vodice exit, then continue driving to the first traffic-light intersection in Vodice, where you continue left in the direction of Cerklje na Gorenjskem and Brnik. When you arrive at the main roundabout in Spodnji Brnik, continue driving in the direction of Cerklje and the Krvavec ski center. At the end of the settlement of Cerklje na Gorenjskem, leave the main road, which continues towards Velesovo and Visoko, and continue slightly right onto the road towards the Krvavec ski center. Further on, you arrive at the village of Grad, where signs for the settlement Ambrož pod Krvavcem direct you right onto a steep asphalt road (straight ahead: lower station of the monocable gondola to Krvavec and Štefanja Gora). When the gradient on the steep road eases somewhat, you will arrive at an intersection, where you continue left in the direction of the settlement Ambrož pod Krvavcem (straight ahead: settlements Ravne, Apno and Šenturška Gora). A little further on, the road temporarily descends a bit, then ascends through occasionally quite scenic slopes. Higher up, you arrive at Ambrož pod Krvavcem, where you pass the church of St. Ambrož and the tourist farm Pr Ambružarju on the left side. From the tourist farm onwards, the road enters the forest and ascends through it all the way to Planina Jezerca, where there is a large arranged parking lot.
B) From the Jesenice–Ljubljana highway, take the Kranj–East exit, then continue driving towards Brnik, Komenda and Mengeš. When you arrive at the main roundabout in Spodnji Brnik, continue driving in the direction of Cerklje and the Krvavec ski center. At the end of the settlement of Cerklje na Gorenjskem, leave the main road, which continues towards Velesovo and Visoko, and continue slightly right onto the road towards the Krvavec ski center. Further on, you arrive at the village of Grad, where signs for the settlement Ambrož pod Krvavcem direct you right onto a steep asphalt road (straight ahead: lower station of the monocable gondola to Krvavec and Štefanja Gora). When the gradient on the steep road eases somewhat, you will arrive at an intersection, where you continue left in the direction of the settlement Ambrož pod Krvavcem (straight ahead: settlements Ravne, Apno and Šenturška Gora). A little further on, the road temporarily descends a bit, then ascends through occasionally quite scenic slopes. Higher up, you arrive at Ambrož pod Krvavcem, where you pass the church of St. Ambrož and the tourist farm Pr Ambružarju on the left side. From the tourist farm onwards, the road enters the forest and ascends through it all the way to Planina Jezerca, where there is a large arranged parking lot.

Route description:
At the end of the parking lot, where the road turns left and a road branches off to the right towards the nearby Planina Jezerca, we will notice red hiking signposts that direct us straight onto a marked footpath in the direction of Kriška planina, Vrh Korena, Košutna, Kompotela and Mokrica, which ascends through the pastures of the aforementioned mountain pasture. After a short ascent we reach a cart track, which we follow to the left, crossing the slopes of Kržišče (1658 m). The cart track on which we are walking quickly splits into two parts, and we continue straight on the lower one. Temporarily a nice view opens towards Kranj, Škofjeloško hribovje and Storžič, then the path begins to descend gently. A few more minutes of walking follow, then we arrive at the parking lot at the lower part of Kriška planina.
From the parking lot we continue in the direction of Planina Koren and continue along a poorer macadam road that passes through the underpass under the ski slope. After the underpass, the marked path veers slightly left from the road, continuing parallel to the road along a sort of spruce avenue. When, after a few minutes of gentle ascent, we reach the eastern edge of Kriška planina, where there is a small watering place for animals, we continue slightly left across the grazing fence (right: Planina Osredek and Kamniški vrh), but continue the gentle ascent in roughly the same direction. The path then transitions from the mountain pasture to somewhat steeper slopes of Krvavec, across which we traverse upwards to a vantage point from which a nice view opens towards Kržišče (Pokovše), the ridge of Kamniški vrh, the Korošica valley, Velika planina and towards the nearby Košutna and Veliki Zvoh.
From the vantage point, which is a few steps to the right off the path, we begin to descend more steeply towards the hunting cabin above the Korošica valley. When the descent ends and the path continues without major changes in elevation, we arrive at a visible but poorly marked junction, where a path branches off to the right to the aforementioned hunting cabin and further towards the Korošica valley and Kamniška Bistrica valley. At this junction we continue slightly left and begin to ascend gently through the forest. The path quickly leaves the forest into bushes and dwarf pines, then gradually leads us across a grazing fence to the next unmarked junction, which is situated right in the middle of a sharp right-hand bend.
From this hairpin bend, an unmarked path continues straight towards the Razor saddle (saddle between Krvavec and Veliki Zvoh), while we continue right on the still-marked path. A short traverse ascent follows and the path brings us to the southern part of Planina Koren, from where a nice view opens over the central part of the mountain pasture and surrounding peaks. From the southern part of the mountain pasture a short descent follows to the nearby shepherd hut, which is located in the central part of Planina Koren.
Here our path continues slightly left (slightly right: Planina Košutna) across meadows at the valley bottom (the path is initially poorly visible). The path then becomes steeper and after less than 30 minutes of walking brings us to a small pond, where there is a poorly marked junction. We continue straight (right: Košutna) and follow the gentle path to the next junction, where we take the right path in the direction of Kompotela (left: Vrh Korena). From here orientation is somewhat more difficult, and in fog very challenging. The path ahead slowly begins to ascend gently up the grassy slope overgrown with dwarf pines. The footpath then brings us, with fine views, to the summit of Kompotela.

Along the route: Kriška planina (1480m), Planina Koren (1675m)

The trip can be extended to the following destinations: Mokrica ( 30 min)

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