The trail to the Hinterer Gosausee

Beyond the Vorderer Gosausee the valley keeps going, and a wide gravel track follows it. The Gosaulacke, a shallow bay-green lake with dead trees standing in it, comes after about an hour; the Hinterer Gosausee, at 1,154 metres and right under the glacier, after roughly an hour and a half. The walking is easy and almost flat, and the traffic thins with every kilometre — most visitors turn round at the first lake.

The Hinterer Gosausee is a different picture from the front one. It is smaller, paler and closer under the ice, with scree and low pine instead of forest around it, and the Dachstein no longer at the end of the valley but directly overhead. On a still day it mirrors just as cleanly, and there is nobody in the frame.

The track is in shade for much of the morning and gets its light in the middle of the day, which is the reverse of the front lake — so the two work as a sequence rather than a choice: reflection first, then walk in.

Snow closes the upper valley from about November and lies late into spring; in winter the track is a ski and snowshoe route, not a walk. A horse-drawn shuttle runs part of the way in summer. Check the season and the conditions before committing to the full distance.