The Bachtel Tower Viewing Platform near Zurich

November 20, 2016 -- There has been some snow, but it has melted a lot, unfortunately leaving many of the forest trails wet and muddy. Nevertheless, it is still great to be able to do a 15-km walk with sunshine and crisp views of the entire Alp chain all the way to the Bernese Alps.

Just East of Lake Zurich are rolling hills which are popular for hiking because it's not too far for the city people to travel to. There are also several towers with look-out platforms, easily accessible both on foot and by car. On Sunday we chose one of these hills (Bachtel) with a look-out tower as our first stop because there was a restaurant (1-hour uphill walk) where we had our Sunday lunch, before continuing on for 3 more hours to our destination of Steg back in the valley bottom. 15 km in 4 hours, 15 mins.

Heading up to Bachtel Tower and Restaurant for lunch

Passing some pretty farm houses along the way.

View on our ascent, not yet sunny but crisp mountain views.

Looked cool.

Arriving at the top near the Bachtel Tower. Before going up the tower, we will have lunch in the restaurant (to the left off the picture).

Heading up to the viewing platform on the Bachtel Tower: 180 steps....

 

Heading up to the viewing platform on the Bachtel Tower: 180 steps....

View of Lake Zurich to the West, and the Bachtel Restaurant below, where we had lunch.

Zoomed photos of the Central Alps: Mythen x2 upper left, Eiger/Jungfrau upper right.

To the NW, lakes Pfäffikersee and Greifensee

To the North is the landscape we are now going to walk for 3 hours before descending into the Töss Valley on the right.

It snowed up here a couple of weeks ago, and the melting snow has left the paths pretty muddy.

The afternoon sun was pleasant, just right for this hike.

View South to the Glarus Alps

Total distance from Wald to Steg approx. 15 km, in 4 hours 15 minutes.