Hiking in Switzerland – Gabrielle and Urs

Thursday September 3, 2026 -- Urs took Thursday off instead of Wednesday, as it was forecast to be the better of the two days. Not wanting to go far, we chose to do a hike in the lovely Sarneraa Valley again, where we have been often, especially in the region of Flüeli-Ranft, birthplace and home of Switzerland's Patron Saint "Bruder Klaus". But there was a stretch of hillside between Flüeli-Ranft and Giswil which we had not yet walked, and it was definitely within our abilities, a four-hour, 12-km hike with only a couple of uphill sections. I had just at random planned this trail out on my hiking map subscription.

Fully expecting that no one else would hike this random trail, we were totally surprised to ride the bus up with a full class of 13-year-old boys, who ended up walking the same trail and always within hearing distance. (This was unfortunate for me, as we could never really "shake" them. What were the chances that we would end up on the same trail at the same time?). I really wondered why the class leaders would pick this spot for a hike, and then we found out that A) the trail leads to the exact geographical center of the Canton of Obwalden, and B) that this is actually an official themed trail called "Sachsler Höhenweg" promoted by the Obwalden Tourism, see this link HERE.

Nevertheless, it was a lovely hike, mostly along narrow forested trails, still in the shadow of the mountains on the east side of Lake Sarnen which was great on this hot day, and with lots of views up and down the valley and onto the beautiful turquoise lake. The hardest part was the final 30 minutes at the valley bottom to the train station in Giswil, where there was no shade on this hot early afternoon.

Always a lovely view when you travel along Lake Sarnen in the early morning! We left home at 7:20 to travel via Luzern and Sarnen to Sachseln, where we changed to the bus to Flüeli-Ranft.

Heading up by bus from Sachseln to Flüeli-Ranft with a view of the magnificent Mt.Pilatus to the north.

We got to the village of Flüeli-Ranft at 8:55. This village is known for the famous holy man "Bruder Klaus", or also knows as St.Niklaus, formerly "Nicholas von der Flüe". (In the bus up here was a large group of approx. 13-year-old boys we had hoped had come up here to visit this historical village on a class outing..)

This village is a bit of a museum. It is where Switzerland's favourite holy man was born, grew up, got married, had 10 children, and then with the blessing of his family, moved down into the bottom of the nearby Ranft ravine to live out his life as a hermit, basically. This is the house where he raised his family. He is known for giving good political advice, and was named Switzerland's Patron Saint in 1947 when he was canonized by Pope Pius XII.

And this house is the birthplace of Nicholas of Flüe. He was allegedly born here in 1417. (Original foundations dating back to 1300 were found below the house. In 1925 the house was "reconstructed" with aged wood to what one thought it might have originally looked like.)

I did a thorough visit of this village and both the birth house and residence of Nicholas of Flüe in May of 2023, including also a visit of the church on the hill (Photos HERE). This time we just headed out on our hike right away. (And we also did a hike to visit the hermitage in the Ranft Ravine in May 2025).

Heading out of town right away to get going on our hike, as it is a long one, 4 hours and 12½ kilometers.

I had randomly traced this hike on my map as a "doable" hike for us, and we had never walked along this mountain flank before, but later found out it is officially called the "Sachsler Höhenweg". We thought we'd be alone on the trail, but ended up "leap-frogging" with a group of boys on a school outing. Starting at about 9 a.m. in Flüeli-Ranft, we got to Giswil station at about 13:50, in plenty of time for the 14:05 train back to Luzern.

Heading south now out of the village of Flüeli-Ranft with the Giswilerstock Massif ahead of us.

First of many views we had down to Lake Sachseln in the Sarneraa Valley. (At this point we could hear the voices of the boys and it was obvious they were following the same trail we had chosen for this day!)

(Hoping their goal was the "geographical center of Swizerland" about 90 minutes from Flüeli-Ranft—and the only spot we thought might be interesting for a school outing—we took a 15-minute break on this bench to make sure they got far enough past us so that we could continue our hike in silence!)

View from our bench along the "Sachseln High Trail". We are waiting for the group to get far enough ahead of us so that we don't hear them anymore. (Unfortunately they all stopped for a few minutes at the farm further back, figuring out which trail to take while a small dog barked at them the whole time... which was worse than the chatter! No luck for me today!)

View of the communities on the West side of Lake Sarnen. We did a nice hike along that hillside in March 2020.

A nice day for relaxing in the sunny pastures! These cows are not wearing bells, so it is very quiet as we continue on our walk (The boys' group having continued on by now and the dog stopped barking for a while until we passed his property).

Good thing we started relatively early, as the day was going to be warm! (We could have started an hour earlier, but then there would definitely have been more shadow on this eastern side of the lake.)

A short stop on the view bench to admire the town of Sachseln below.

More panorama views.

This lovely little bird crossed our path. It is called a Eurasian Chaffinch. We see these quite often.

Sure enough, we came to a waymarker which indicates that the geographical centerpoint of Canton Obwalden is at a place called "Glotersegg" along the same trail we are walking. Having now come about 30 minutes from Flüeli village, we still have 3½ hours to our destination in Giswil, so a long hike this day! But here at the Churigen farm starts the interesting footpath through a lot of forest.

The trail weaves in and out of small "ravines" with bridges to cross, sometimes without water below! A lot of the forest trail was still in shadow of the eastern mountains, which we enjoyed as the day was already getting hot.

The trail never got boring.

Forest sections alternated with meadows and small barns and residences along the way.

Imagine living here with this view down the Sarneraa Valley to the north with Mount Stanserhorn looming large on the right and Mt.Pilatus on the left.

Far-reaching views down the Sarneraa Valley to the towns of Sachseln and Sarnen (at the north end of the lake) and Mt.Pilatus.....

Now we have come even with the site of the "Geographical Centerpoint of Canton Obwalden" and sure enough, the group of boys was up there having a break! We were hoping this was the goal of their hike and that they'd go back to Flüeli, but this was not the case.... We did not take the detour up to the site, but continued on the level trail here.

More views of the lake.

Perfect and easy trail.... looking north.

Even on his days off, Urs has to take calls from his fellow employees, as he is reponsible for what vehicles can be borrowed by the engineers for the day.

Up ahead, a close-up look at Mt.Gilswilerstock. (Right in the center is a saddle which we crossed on a hike fairly recently, i.e. in June of this year). Also up ahead we can see a waymarker along the trail we are walking, high above that cliff!

Another interesting descent into a little side ravine. This one had water flowing down, and a small metal bridge.

We then came across this little cabin with a convenient bench, so we stopped here for a break at 11 a.m. (Imagine our surprise when the whole group of boys passed us here, as we had hoped they had gone back to Flüeli! They were actually a well-behaved group and all of them greeted us heartily!)

The view from the little bench at the cabin. It was obvious that the hiking group was going to do the whole hike we were, so we waited here for quite a while to give them enough time to get ahead of us.

After 10 minutes we continued along the trail (passing the trail marker we had seen earlier from further off) and what a disappointment to see that the group had also stopped for a break just around the corner from the cabin! (Now we had to hope they were taking a longer break here, so we could get some distance ahead of them, but that again was not to be.)

The path heads downhill now and to the left, into another small ravine.

The fall crocus is a sign that summer is soon over.

The next ravine we descended into had a really special bridge: A little suspension bridge with a very narrow platform!

We had so much fun crossing this bridge!

VIDEO:

Urs crossing the narrow suspension bridge!

In the end we were not unhappy that a large part of our hike was on small forest footpaths in the shade! Shortly after passing the little suspension bridge, though, we already heard the voices, so they didn't take a long break, as I had hoped, and were catching up quickly again.

A little further along, the trail decends onto this open clearing.

We walked much more quickly now to get ahead of the voices and also to look for a shady spot off the regular path where we could have our picnic lunch and let them pass again.

It was right about here, when we got to a vehicle road, that we found a spot in the forested section (off the photo to the right) and had our picnic lunch, while we watched the group pass us. Now really hoping they would be far ahead of us as we undertook the final part of the hike, the descent to lake level.

Here at 12:30 at a place called Obstocken starts the long descent to lake level, which consisted of a steep section through the forest, then an easier zigzag forest road, and then a final (very hot, no shade) 30 minutes at the valley bottom along the highway and railway line to the station at Giswil. Still another 90 minutes from here!

At Obstocken, a final look to the open valley bottom at the south end of Lake Sarnen, with the town of Giswil hidden at the foot of this mountainside, before heading down into the forest. (Final side note about the group of boys, who had once again stopped for a break here, just a few meters from our final "hiding" spot! But from here they didn't catch up to us again...)

Having emerged from the steep forest trail we reach a partly paved forest road, which seems to have been built only to access this one farm. Obviously, it is important to be able to harvest as much mountainside grass as possible, for winter feed for the cows. We were here at 12:50

For about 30 minutes, we walked zigzag down this forest road, which was cool and comfortable.

And at 1:20 p.m we were near the lake level with a view of the south end of Lake Sarnen.

Final steps over a tunnel through with the main road passes, and then we had another 30 minutes to walk into the town of Giswil.

This final stretch of 30 minutes was the toughest: It was level, and only this small section of paved walkway until we crossed under the railway line to follow a small stream, but no shade, and by now, at 1:20 p.m., the sun was quite hot.

And here the Panorama Express train is heading to Luzern, from Interlaken and Meiringen via the Brünig Pass.

Farmers are still busy like crazy cutting and drying as much grass as they can.

Final stretch along a stream was about 20-30 minutes without any shade. We got to the Giswil train station at about 1:50 p.m. in plenty of time for the 14:05 train back to Luzern, and ultimately a 90-minute trip back home.