Hiking to the Esterli Tower in Canton Aargau

Sunday February 9 -- The day promised to be sunny so we went back to our favourite sport of hiking and walked through the forest in Canton Aargau (Argovia), an area just Northwest of where we live, easy to get to and mostly no snow in winter.

Our goal was a look-out tower called the Esterliturm near Lenzburg (Esterli Tower) with the hope of some good views of the Alps, but unfortunately the air was hazy. Also, the winds from the oncoming storm front started up, and so even with sunshine, it wasn't quite as enjoyable as I'd hoped. Most of the trail was on wide forest roads which is OK for this time of year, but sometimes also monotonous. Canton Aargau is 35% forest: There are 49,000 hectares of forest and 16.2 million trees.

The Esterli tower was built in 1974, is 48 meters high and requires a climb on a spiral staircase with 253 steps! Even though you have a wonderful view of most of Northern Switzerland from up there, we didn't stay long because it was COLD! 

Our plan was to end the hike at Lake Hallwilersee, either at the Hallwyl Castle (which we have been to twice before) or in the town of Seengen, where, according to my map, there was a different castle which we had not seen before. We chose the latter.... but could have saved ourselves the 30-minute detour as this turned out to be a rather ugly run-down building... and the town of Seengen provided no additional charm either....

Start of our hike in the little village of Egliswil. This Protestant Church is typical of this area. Seems to have been built in approx. 1700.

There are always some very nice houses to look at

Heading up the hill toward the forest trail to the Esterli Tower. Urs is getting all kinds of notifications warning of strong winds expected, also in this area, although so far it is warm and pleasant

Looking down at the village of Egliswil

We recently had very strong winds pass through the area and you can see the results when walking through the forests. More of the same is expected. 

Sometimes we have to climb over trees or broken branches that have fallen on the trails, usually as a result of large wind storms.

Heading toward the Esterli look-out tower. It's a very unusual-looking tower!

This narrow tower has an internal spiral staircase with 253 steps.

At the base of the tower is a large picnic area and a display which shows how much wood grows in the Argovian forest every 20 seconds. Good thing too, as it has to replace the fallen trees!

Next destination: Up to the observation platform!

It's a real work-out to climb the 253 steps! There were 3 fold-out seats along the way, for if you get tired...

It was very cold and windy up here, so we didn't stay long! This view is looking South across Lake Hallwilersee toward the Alps, but difficult to photograph due to the hazy air and sun angle

A bit less exposure on the camera creates a darker picture, but you can see the Alps

To our North, a zoomed view of Lenzburg Castle

And beyond the Lenzburg Castle is Wildegg Castle on the Aar River

 

After descending the tower, we walked back toward the South, making a loop to the East of Egliswil

The pastoral landscape of the Seetal Valley. 

Still heading South, we catch a glimpse of the Esterli Tower behind us. 

At a place called Eichberg was a restaurant and some multifamily homes, and this wonderful view over Lake Hallwilersee. We sat on a bench and had a coffee break, but not for long as it was windy. Below is the town of Seengen, which is our destination for today. 

When we got to Seengen, we did a 30-minute detour to look at this castle, "Schloss Brestenberg", which I had seen on our map. Not worth the detour, nor the rush to get back to the bus stop!

I thought I might try to get a look at the castle from below, and this is what I found!

Another 11-km Sunday afternoon walk from Egliswil to Seengen via Esterli Tower

We have done some other hikes in this area as well, including almost the entire perimeter of Lake Hallwilersee.

And as it turns out, we did see that castle on a walk along lake Hallwilersee in April of 2017... so we could have saved ourselves the detour! Looks better from this side than up close anyway.