The sound of bells is coming from behind me. For the past hour, I've been wondering whom they belong to. Now I'm looking forward to meeting some other hikers on the winding path next to the Krimml Waterfalls. I decide to sit down and wait for company on a convenient rock.

It’s a very rainy weekday and early, so unlike most of my other day-hikes in Austria, I’ve encountered only a handful of other sightseers. This, despite the fact that I'm going up a path used by over 700,000 visitors a year as they trek to see the highest waterfalls in Europe.

The Krimmler Wasserfälle are just one of the natural wonders of Europe's largest national park — Austria’s Hohe Tauern National Park. The park contains a large area of the Hohe Tauern range, part of the Austrian Central Alps, and stretches across the Austrian provinces of Salzburg, Tyrol and East Tyrol. The Hohe Tauern range encompasses 246 glaciers and 304 mountains higher than 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) in an area of 1,800 km² (695 square miles). Austria's highest mountain, the Großglockner (12,460 feet, 3,798 m), lies within the park.

It's hard to believe that this is just one section of the winding cascades.

The clear mountain stream Krimmler Ache runs from the Krimml Kees glacier 12.5 miles (20 km) to the valley. It plunges over three cascades, together totaling 1,247 feet (380 m) in height. I’ve already passed two of them. The first cascade falls 459 feet (140 m), and is just past the waterfall park entrance. Its powerful spray drenches all near its base — the rocks, plants and visitors taking photographs. After 30 minutes, I passed the second fall, a shorter cascade of 328 feet (100 m), bordered by precipice known as a hunter's leap after a legendary poacher who leapt over the falls to escape his pursuers.

I’m slightly winded, even though the wide “Wasserfallweg” (Waterfall Way) has quite a gentle ascent by Austrian standards. In Austria, it seems that everyone from the littlest child to the oldest grandmother can out-hike me. I’ve learned to take the distance signs that I pass on trailheads with a grain of salt. If the time allowed for a 0.6-mile (1 km) hike is given at 30 minutes, I know that it will take me at least 45 minutes. That's what comes of being casual North American walker in a country of outdoor fanatics.

But who can blame the Austrians? When you live amidst the beauty of the Alps, it can be hard to resist their call, particularly when you can hike hut to hiking hut and not worry about carrying too much camping equipment or food. The Österreichischer Alpenverein (OAV — the Austrian Alpine Club) maintains a series of mountain huts across Austria. Some of these huts are simple refuges; others have cafés and rainwater showers.

The OAV built the Wasserfallweg in 1900 and, along with a consortium of private farmers, owns the Hohe Tauern National Park. This is why the park contains both mountain wilderness, including alpine lakes and glaciers, rare ecosystems of trees, flowers and wildlife and human civilization, with an agricultural valley, 29 towns and 60,000 residents.

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