Fields and Fields of Spring Meadow Saffron in Canton Valais

April 20, 2018 (Friday) -- The small village of Eischoll in Canton Wallis is nicknamed "Heimat der Lichtblume" (home of the "Flower of Light", actually the Spring Meadow Saffron flower). This purple long-petalled flower is found in only a few areas of the Southwest Alps, and in Switzerland it grows in the Canton of Valais on the shady side of the mountains. Eischoll has earned the nickname because nowhere else do these flowers grow in such abundance, so that the hillsides sometimes look like purple carpets.

Thanks to my wonderful colleague, I was able to take the day off on Friday to travel with my dear former colleague to the village of Eischoll, to spend the day in search of the flower. At first we thought we were too late, as we found only a few wilted flowers at village level, but as we climbed to higher altitudes where there were still patches of snow, we stumbled on clearings full of these so very pretty flowers, so obviously just having emerged after the very recent snow melts. We were thrilled that we had caught them at the right time, and spent five wonderful hours in the area, mostly on hands and knees photographing the flowers....

An added bonus: Part of the upper trail was along one of the many irrigation channels in this area (called Suonen or Bisses) which are always a pleasure to walk along.

Heading up from Raron to Eischoll by cable car: These slate roofs are typical of this area, and so very pretty!

Village of Eischoll as seen from the cable car, shortly before arrival at the summit station.

First view of the Rhone Valley looking NE: Below is the ancient church in Raron, and at the back the city of Visp

First we headed West of the village before going uphill and making a loop back.

The first sightings of single flowers got us all excited, but they were finished flowering in this area. That's why we headed uphill.

Birch trees with early spring leaves.

We thought we might have missed the Saffron Flowers, so we concentrated on other pretty ones!

After walking around the town of Eischoll we headed up the hill. Altogether this was about 6 km

As we climbed through the forest, we came across more and more of these flowers.

Where the snow has recently receded, the flowers pop out as long as the ground is still wet

Perfect spring day for our outing into Canton Valais

The upper part of the tour was along one of the many irrigation ditches in this area: "Suonen" or "Bisses".

This structure didn't survive the heavy winter snows very well.

At a couple of places we had to carefully cross the snow. On the other side of the valley, the famous viaduct from the Lötschberg South Ramp is visible.