Scharmoin Panorama Trail to Churwalden High Above Lenzerheide

Sunday November 8, 2026 -- The weather forecast promised lots of sunshine in the mountains, and even though it was pretty cold there, we chose to do a final high trail hike for the season and brave out the cold in exchange for sunshine, as we had expected fog in the lower areas again.

The area around Lenzerheide is one we don't access often, and so I studied which cable-cars we might ride to get to higher elevations. As most cable-cars are currently undergoing maintenance in preparation for the popular ski region, the only ones still running were the Lenzerheide-Rothorn gondola and cable car. The summit of the Parpaner Rothorn was of no interest to us as it has snow, and would be much colder than the maximum 6 degrees in the valley bottom! But the gondola to the mid-point at Scharmoin was ideal for us, as there is a high trail heading north from there, not a difficult walk and where we'd surely get some views.

End of the 3½-hour hike was in Churwalden at the valley bottom, and we knew there would be shadow there quite early in the afternoon, so we timed our hike to start at 11 a.m. But we once again had train troubles, as our train to Chur was 12 minutes late and we figured we'd miss the bus connection, so we took a different route and arrived 30 minutes later than planned. (As it turns out, we think the bus waited the connection).

In any case, it was very cold, probably about 3 degrees at the altitude we were walking, but plenty of sunshine, only cold in the shade. And of course, shadow in the valley bottom by the time we ended our hike at 3:30 p.m. But it wasn't too bad. But as it turns out, there was no fog at all in the lower areas, and with all the sunshine, we might have been better off walking where it was warmer!

And a highlight was that we saw several Chamois on the mountainside!

PART I: Trip from Home to Lenzerheide, and to Scharmoin Cable-Car Station
(One of the reasons we had chosen this region was because we can get there quickly, in just under three hours, and we were going to get to the cable-car by 10:30, just as the sun was shining on that side of the mountain. Due to train issues, we started a half hour later, unfortunately).

On Lake Zurich, the ferries between Horgen and Meilen cross mid-lake. I had expected fog in the lower regions, but no fog here! (Visibility isn't great though). 

Also beautiful sunshine along Lake Walen (Walensee). 

In retrospect, we should have changed plans and done some walking here in the sunny Rhine Valley (Heidiland), as it would have been warmer than where we are headed!

There is a small mountain range here on the border with Liechtenstein (near Sargans) where we have not yet hiked up. Today would have been a good day for this as well!

View down on the city of Chur (the oldest city in Switzerland) as we head up by bus into the side valley in the direction of Lenzerheide. It is now 10:35 and we are half an hour later than planned because of a delay with our train, and the bus was very full and I had to sit on the steps. (Having left home at 7:42, we should have been in Chur at 9:48...). It's a 30-minute bus ride to the Rothorn cable-car station in Lenzerheide, which we reached at 11 a.m. 

Heading up the hill with the first section of the Rothorn cable-way, looking down at the lake called Heidsee (which I walked around with a friend in the winter of 2014). Riding with us was a young man with a mountain-bike, who told us that this is one of the few mountain-bike trails still open at this time of year.... we had wondered because dozens of bikers had been waiting to ride the gondola up! 

Approaching the Scharmoin summit station at 11:12. Originally we had planned to be here 30 minutes earlier to take advantage of as much sunshine as possible. 

At the bottom of the gondola we had gotten a shock: Dozens of mountain bikers were waiting in line to ride the gondola back up to the Scharmoin station. I had been afraid that we'd have to wait too long, but we cut in line, or they let us cut in line, or we'd never have made it up! Each cabin carried three bikes: Two on the outside and one inside!

View to the southwest from the Scharmoin summit station. You can see the bike trail below.

For a few minutes we watched the bikers head down the bike trail!

The next set of bikers preparing to ride the trail back down the mountain! This is one of the few cable-cars still running at this time of year, so the bikers are out in force!

We are here at an elevation of 1900 meters and it was quite cold, about 3 degrees Celcius. The second part of the Rothorn cable-way is a large-cabin cable-car heading up to the summit of the Parpaner Rothorn at 2861 meters! (Minus temperatures up there! I guess people go up to the restaurant there and for the view!)

A last look at the second part of the Rothhorn cable-car making its way to the summit before we start off on our hike at 11:30.

Close-up view of the summit station of the Parpaner Rothorn Cableway.

PART II: 13-kilometer walk along the high trail to Churwalden

(With the sunshine we had, it was only cold when we reached a couple of shady sections. We detoured to a mountain farm for our picnic lunch, and were pleasantly surprised to see Chamois on the hillside. In the end, only the last 30 minutes of our hike were in shadow at the valley bottom). 

Starting off on our hike at about 11:30, we covered the 13 kilometers in four hours, arriving down in Churwalden at about 15:30. We detoured to the Obersäss farm for our picnic lunch break at 12:35, so an hour after starting. We are a walking a section of the themed trail no.751: "Scharmoin Panorama Trail". 

Down below in the center of the photo is the town of Churwalden where we are ending our hike. By the time we got there, it was in the shadow of the mountain. Had we started a half hour earlier as planned, we would still have had sunshine there. 

Close-up view of the church tower of the village of Parpan below us. 

We did a small detour to the Scharmoin reservoir lake, which is used to create snow for the ski hills in winter. The water was so still and perfectly like a mirror!

Scharmoin Reservoir Lake above Parpan near Lenzerheide. It is only 12m deep, and you are not allowed to swim in it. 

Heading back now to the trail from the little reservoir lake. Here is one of many snow cannons on the mountainside, ready to create snow. We are walking on a section of what is called the Scharmoin Panorama Trail.

We pass under another chair lift which heads up on this hillside from the community of Parpan below. I think that this stretch which we walked between the Rothorn gondola station and the top of this chairlift is also a prepared walking trail in winter.

Close-up view of Lenzerheide's Lake called Heidsee. I walked around that lake with a friend back in February 2014

A more panorama view of the west side of the valley. In December 2017 we did a very lovely winter walk on prepared winter trails on that other side of the valley, starting with a cable-car ride up from Churwalden, and then walking down on the south side of the lake.

Far in the distance to the northwest are the already snow-covered peaks of the Sardona Mountains. Studying our maps, we are pretty sure that peak is called Ringelspitz. 

This is probably our last chance to do a high trail hike like this this year! Nicer in summer when the grass is green, but at least no snow yet!

A look behind us to see how far we have already come by 12:30, about an hour after starting off on the trail!

We took a detour to a nearby farm called "Obersäss", which has already been "shut down" for winter. It was time for our picnic lunch, and we know that there are usually benches or tables at these farms, where  we can take a break.

After only a 10-minute break, we started off again from the farm house, looking northwards to see where our trail continues. At the arrow we could have continued along the Scharmoin Panorama Trail heading back to Parpan, but we continued northwards from there.

Back on the trail!

The trail now winds down the hill, and once again we can see the Scharmoin Station where we started earlier.

In some of the spots which get little sun, there were some icy stretches we had to be careful on. 

We then got to another farm (with a vending-machine.... we didn't have a chance to look at the offerings) where other hikers (we were not really alone on the trail this time, as there were about five other couples hiking in the same direction) who were staring up the hill, so we knew they must have seen something. 

And sure enough, in the direction from which we had come, and further up the mountain, we caught sight of two chamois running along the hillside!

Zoomed view of the chamois. It's always a treat to catch sight of them! And we would not have seen them were it not for the other hikers.

And then as we continued on our way, we saw another couple on the trail looking up the mountain with binoculars, and we knew this meant that we should also look up there, high up.

And sure enough we spotted movement.... a zoomed view shows two more chamois!

Way up high below the craggy peaks on that stripe of scree is where the two chamois were walking!

Continuing along now after having observed the chamois for a while. 

Another look back up the hill as the road winds its way down. 

Now we have reached the wide open clearing we had seen from Obersäss higher up, where we had taken our lunch break. Ahead of us the clouds are clearing somewhat and we can see more of the Ringelspitz and the Sardona Mountains.  

Close-up view of some more magnificent peaks. 

Behind us we can see the Obersäss Farm where we had our lunch.

A closer-up look up the mountain shows both the farm were we had our picnic lunch, as well as the trail we descended. 

Now we pass many such nice houses as we make our way down to valley bottom. 

At 13:45 we reach the junction of trails, where the Panorama Trail heads back toward Parpan to the south in the valley bottom. We have decided to continue to the North toward Büel and then descend from there to Churwalden. According to the pink sign, this is also part of a prepared winter walking trail!

A bit further on, we discover that we still have 90 minutes to go to get to Churwalden, which means at best we will get there at 3:15 p.m.! At this point we are starting to wonder how much sunshine we will have left before hitting the shadow of valley bottom!

What a neat place to have a house!

Urs says that he particularly likes this little house! From here we have a longer stretch through shadow of a nearby hill, where it then got very cold! And then through a forest without a view. 

Back in the sunshine!

As we get further down the mountain, we encounter larch trees that are turning yellow. But it's not nearly impressive as the yellow landscape we experienced exactly a week earlier on our trip to St.Moritz (Photos HERE). 

Now we're further down the mountain in a clearing with several houses.

The sun brightens up the leaves in the trees here. 

At 2:45 p.m. we are happy to still have sunshine, but we can tell the sun will dip behind the summit in just a few minutes! So we found a bench near here where we sat for a few minutes before the shadow of the mountain reached us!

At exactly 3 p.m. the sun passed the summit of the western mountains at the altitude we were at. From here we still had 30 minutes to descend to the valley bottom. 

Below us we get a look at an interesting old church (simply called "Chloster") on the road north of Churwalden. There is a valley-bottom trail that passes via here (and several other such valley churches), a trail we will plan to walk next June or so, starting in Lenzerheide and ending in Chur to the north. 

Even though we were now in the shadow of the western mountain, it's actually not uncomfortably cold. Had we been able to start half an hour earlier as originally planned, we would still have had sunshine here!

Now we are approaching the town of Churwalden. It was back on the 24th of December 2017 that we took the cable-car from here up to the western mountains and did the winter hike to Lenzerheide. 

At 3:30 p.m. we reached the main road in Churwalden, or rather the main bus station where we still have to wait a few minutes for the next bus out of the valley. Up high where we had walked the high trail, there is still lots of sunshine, and once again we can see the Obersäss Farm where we had our picnic lunch!

Waiting for the 15:36 bus back to Chur. The bus was also full, but we did manage to get seats this time. Changing to the train in Chur, in all it was a 2½-hour trip back home.  

What our 3½-hour hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps, starting at 11:30 at the Scharmoin summit station of the Rothorn cable-way, and then walking along the panorama trail, heading then down to Churwalden which we reached at 3:30 p.m. 

By 15:50, the bus is heading out of this side valley and down to the city of Chur where there is still sunshine. 

View down the Rhine Valley here just north of Chur. 

And the final stretch, the 16:08 train to Zurich, and then south again to Zug. We got home at 6:15 p.m.!

These are all the hikes we had done around the area of Lenzerheide. There is a hiking trail from the summit of the Parpaner Rothorn (the second cable-way which we watched, but did not ride), all the way to Arosa in the east, also a trail I would love to hike next summer. 

Location of the "Lenzerheide Valley" within Switzerland. 

This is what the weather forecast was showing us as we were already on the trail. Pure sunshine all day in Lenzerheide, with maximum 6 degrees at valley bottom, so about 3 degrees where we were about 400 meters higher up at 1900 meters above sea level. The forecast for Churwalden shows no sun anymore past about 2-3 p.m.!

On the day before our trip to Lenzerheide, we studied the webcam from Heidbühl across the valley and saw that the Scharmoin station would already have sunshine at 11 a.m. This is what the whole hillside looked like as we crossed it on the panorama trail between 11:30 and about 2 p.m. 

Just five days later after we had done this lovely panorama hike, we got hit by a cold front and that whole part of the mountain where we walked is now covered in snow. The skiers are happy and hope the season starts soon.