Kalserbach

The Kalserbach is a mountain stream in East Tyrol. It rises at the Dorfersee lake high in the Dorfertal valley and flows for over twenty-one kilometres through the Dorfertal and Kalsertal valleys before joining the Isel near Huben. The whole course lies within the municipality of Kals am Großglockner, draining nearly 166 square kilometres of the Hohe Tauern region. The stream is valued for its near-natural stretches and rare habitats. From the Daberklamm gorge upstream it runs through the core and buffer zones of the Hohe Tauern National Park, where granite and gneiss give way to crystalline schists and metamorphic limestones. Downstream, the valley widens into farmland around Ködnitz, then narrows again into a two-kilometre-long, largely inaccessible gorge before reaching its wide, gravelly mouth. Walkers follow the Dorfertal path beside the upper reaches, where moraine boulders and alpine pastures frame the clear water. In the middle section the stream passes small meadows and the few remaining water mills along the ‘Mühlenweg’. Near the village of Kals the banks are partly lined with poplars and limes, while the lower gorge holds relict elm-lime woods that shelter rare plants such as the German tamarisk. The final stretch, separated from the valley floor by a low dam, spreads out in a broad gravel fan before quietly joining the Isel.