A trip to the Prättigau to find the Fields of Poet's Narcissi

Sunday May 30, 2021 -- In early May of 2020 we were in the village of Seewis in the Prättigau region of Eastern Switzerland for a walk out of the valley in the direction of Landquart. (Photos HERE). A new acquaintance of mine then informed us, that Seewis is known for its abundance of Poet's Daffodil (or Poet's Narcissus) in late May to mid-June, so we took her advice and went there again this year, just later in the month of May.

We did do our research and inquired ahead of time as to the status of the flowers, and were told that now was a good time to come see them. The community has created a "Narcissus Trail" in the steep hillside above Seewis, and we were advised to take the newly-created trail through the forest. That turned out to be a really tough 300-m uphill hike, but in the shade of the woods, so not hot. And we saw a red deer, which walked out from behind a tree right in front of us! But no narcissi, not for the first hour or more of walking. We then inquired from people coming down from higher elevations if they had seen any, and following their advice, we climbed higher than originally planned and were rewarded not only by many forest clearings of little wild narcissi, but also a most spectacular view over the entire Prättigau, as well as across the valley into the Valzeina Valley, where we had been twice last year as well, and the Rhine Valley toward Chur.

The main drawback of this "Narcissus Trail" is that you walk mostly on paved roads... so both the first climb through the forest and our detour higher up was actually a nice change along forest roads and smaller trails. 

As pretty as the fields of narcissi were, they still don't compare with the grandeur of the narcissus fields in Les Avants, in the French part of Switzerland, where I went with a friend in May of 2019 (Photos HERE). With the "second" winter we had this year, it is highly likely that we were still a bit too early, as in some of the clearings half the flowers still hadn't opened yet. Perhaps later, the effect would have been more spectacular. But this year, you have to go with the weather.... Also, the flowers are supposed to exude an intoxicating smell, but we didn't smell anything at all..... 

Upon our return to the village of Seewis, there was no bus for another hour, so we decided to walk the additional 300m downhill to the village of Grüsch, stopping by at the Solavers Fortress Ruins which dominate the small hill above that town. It added 45 minutes to our already 4-hour hike, but had the best trail of the whole tour!

A bus from the valley bottom in Grüsch takes us in 15 minutes to Seewis on the mountainside: "Welcome to Seewis, the Narcissus Village in the Prättigau"

Our walk through Seewis starts with colourful meadows, as there were lots of other flowers besides the narcissi

The church in Seewis also has a very tall steeple!

Very conspicuous in this village are the wooden balconies with the intricate carved railings

Buying cheese once again from the self-serve "Cheese Hut"

Heading up the hill from Seewis to the start of the Narcissus Trail

Another very pretty house, whose balcony railings are so nicely carved.

Even though the signs for the Narcissus Trail started just above the village, we had quite an uphill hike first, and had to get to 1354m (400m higher than the village) before we saw an actual field with narcissi. Most of the hillsides full of flowers were in the areas marked by the two blue circles

Signs such as this one showed us the direction to walk to view the narcissi. They are being quite honest here at the start of the new forest trail created to get you faster to higher elevations: "It needs a bit of endurance!". It was tough, but better than following the paved roads.

As we climbed up through the forest, we were surprised by a small roe deer which emerged from behind a tree into our path

No fields of narcissi quite yet (these are dandelions, young and old), but all the fields are pretty. In the back is Mt. Vilan, the dominant mountain above the village, and one that we could hike up to via a cable car on the other side. Something to try this year as well!

Our first view of the RhineValley: The large city of Chur is at the back. The Calanda Mountain Range is also pretty dominant on the right. On the left is the Valzeina Valley, which we visited October 2020

VIDEO:

Panorama of the Rhine Valley and the Prättigau

Finally, the first small cluster of Poet's Narcissi! No large fields full yet, though, which we had been expecting

Another beautiful house with so much carving! Also, their location was to die for, uninterrupted view up the valley, and vehicle access!

Not having seen but one or two clusters of narcissi, we stopped here for lunch among the dandelions

Our view from our lunch bench at a location called Matan. Our original plan was to head downhill from here along another loop, but we decided to continue uphill first, which turned out to be a good decision.

Urs on the bench. Even without the narcissi, we were totally enjoying the panorama

Just up the road a bit, we discovered the first hillside with scattered flowers. (We had actually seen this fellow go up the hill, and followed him). There weren't overly many, but it was a start. People flock here for these flowers, but we were pretty lucky, it wasn't too overrun.

This is the flower that people come up here to admire and photograph. They are apparently quite poisonous, and therefore there is no livestock in these fields!

FINALLY! a real full field of flowers. We had asked some people coming from higher up the hill if they'd seen any such fields, and they indicated the way: "Lots of them over there!"

There were still many flowers yet to open. Perhaps that is why we couldn't "smell" anything yet...

Besides the Narcissi, there were other pretty flowers. In particular I was very excited about the first Gentians!

A really good view into the Valzeina Valley

We changed our plans and instead of following the paved road downhill, we detoured on a forest road for more uphill walking, but were rewarded with many such forest clearings full of the little white flowers!

A view up the Rhine Valley through a field of Poet's Narcissi!

The upper trail we took, not originally planned, meant more climbing, but brought us into mountain terrain that we love to be in! Here, the snow has just barely melted.

Already here it does look like snow in the meadows. But only about half the flowers were open, so it gets even better later in the season this year!

A nice dense patch

A bit of a wild trail and a narrow bridge over a sloping hillside that reminds us of high-alpine hiking. A nice change from the otherwise many paved roads in the area

Looking down at the little bridge we just crossed. Up here, the trees don't have their leaves yet!

From here on in, our loop takes us back downhill toward Seewis. This is a fantastic view of the Prättigau Region. Right below is Grüsch where we started with the bus, further on is Spiers, and at the very back the Silvretta Massif which forms the border with Austria. Below flows the Landquart River. 

A close-up view of the Silvretta Massif.

Following the paved road back down the mountain

In this area on the eastern part of the loop were also some fields of narcissi

They look like little windmills

Winding our way down the hill. We did stop at the upper corner of the road below, where there were benches, for a very long rest to refresh my feet.

Back down in Seewis. We got down here at 15:30, six hours after starting from here.

There was no bus in Seewis to take us to the valley bottom at the time we got there (ie. buses at 14:30 and 16:30, but not at 15:30), so we decided to walk down to Grüsch, to see the Solavers Fortress Ruins. This added 45 minutes to our already almost 4-hour hike!

A last look up at Seewis before heading down the hill to Grüsch (it was only another 300m descent)

With three nice days in the forecast, farmers were busy mowing the meadows, whose grasses had gotten very tall with the previous rains!

At this point we should have been close to the fortress ruins. I kept saying "Where are they, where are they?" and Urs said, they're right there in front of us....

At the location of the Solavers Fortress Ruins, on the edge of the ravine

Urs at the Solavers Fortress Ruins above the village of Grüsch

Looking down at Grüsch

Arrived back down at the valley bottom in Grüsch. They have their own brewery here, the pink building.

Looking up the ravine and the fortress ruins on top of the hill.

Full map of our hike. Shows we did a total climb of almost 750 meters! That's a real achievement for me! Over 1000m downhill as well, and 4.5-hour hike....

What the trail looks like on Google Earth Maps

Other buildings in Grüsch, seen in early morning on our way up to Seewis by bus

The Fortress Ruins look like this when you are at the train station in Grüsch. This photo was taken a year ago, though, when we did the May 3, 2020 hike from Seewis to Malans

From Grüsch we caught the bus heading to Landquart (instead of the train). This is a view of the ruins and the fabulous mountain backdrop, as seen from the Bus on the South side of the Landquart River. 

The photos from the hike we did a year ago (May 3, 2020) staring in Seewis and walking out of the valley, can be viewed HERE

The photos of our trip into the Valzeina Valley, which we did in October 2020 and which also started with a bus from Grüsch, can be viewed HERE.

This map shows all three of the hikes we did in the area of the Chlus, i.e. the small "canyon" which separates the Rhine Valley from the Prättigau. The two yellow trails were 2020