Vestlandske hovedvei

How to get there

From RV44 towards Stavanger, just before Hellvik, follow the sign ‘Vestlandske hovedvei’ on your right and follow the road to the designated parking place.

Accessibility: Moderate hike. Marked trails.

Duration:  About 7 km, 2,5 hours one way.

Special conditions:

• Park at the parking place and show respect for private land.
• Show respect to animals along the trail.
• Don’t forget to close gates behind you so that animals would not get away.
• Dogs have to be on leash.
• Leave nothing but footprints!

Culture and history

The old main road of West Norway (Vestlandske hovedvei) was part of a road network stretching between Christiania (Oslo) and Stavanger, including the road between Hellvik and Ogna. This was at the time the only road adapted for motorized vehicles in Rogaland. The road was in use for nearly 100 years, but had to close in 1940 because of modern vehicles becoming too large.

Geology and nature

Hikers and bikers will experience a characteristic and bare landscape along the road – a landscape typical for Magma Geopark. The landscape here is sometimes called “moon landscape”, which is because the rock so typical for this area is the same type of rock found on the moon! An evening sky free of clouds gives us the possibility to study the moon – the darker parts consist of a rock called basalt while the lighter and brighter parts consist of anorthosite. Anorthosite is the dominating rock in Magma Geopark. Compared to the rest of the world, the anorthosite is a relatively rare rock, but very common here in Rogaland. The anorthosite consists only of one mineral, called plagioclase. Weathering of the anorthosite causes small amounts of soil here which is also very infertile – that’s the reason behind this vast, bare landscape.