Another excursion highlight is the Timmelsjoch High Alpine road, the so-called "secret gate to the south". This refers to the highest pass crossing in the eastern Alps at a height of 2509 m. More than 60 bends, spread over a drop of 2500 metres, snake down from Obergurgl-Hochgurgl to the edge of south Tyrol (60km to Meran). The new road, which is now a toll road, is open daily in summer from the beginning of June until the middle of October from 07:00 until 20:00hrs.

History High Alpine Road in Tyrol

The plan for a road over the Timmelsjoch was taken up again shortly after the Second World War. A pioneer in this was Eduard Wallnöfer, the local government official and later governor, himself a southern Tyrolean by birth.
The northern slip road was built between 1955 and 1959 and cost at that time 28 million Schilling (approximately 2 million Euros). After 1933 under Mussolini the southern slip road had already been built from the Passeier valley up to a point 2km from Joch, but after the Berlin-Rome Axis agreement with the meeting of Mussolini and Hitler, the work was stopped. It was not until 15th September 1968 that the road connection in both directions could be officially opened.

As a rule the road is open from mid-June to mid-October, from 7hrs until 20hrs. As well as providing a through road, the main significance of the road, which is closed to heavy goods vehicles, is as an excursion route for cars and motor bikes. The cycling marathon over the Timmelsjoch takes place annually and in 1988 the Giro d’Italia passed along it.

The Timmelsjoch is Austria’s highest border crossing point. The tollbooth for the toll road can be found behind Hochgurgl hotel village.