From Lake Bannalpsee to Isenthal Valley across Canton Borders

Saturday August 21, 2021 -- Now we are finally having some nice summer days! Saturday was again pretty glorious most everywhere, but we decided to stay relatively close to home again for this day trip, namely near Engelberg, which has some pretty spectacular geology.

The hike consisted of crossing the Bannalper Schonegg ridge from Canton Nidwalden into Canton Uri, and involved the use of two cable cars with which we had not yet traveled, including one of those fabulous open cargo cable cars which belong to mountain farmers but have been made available for public use (and they totally UNDERCHARGE the ride at 4 SFr. per person!). Start of the hike was in Oberrickenbach near Wolfenschiessen, from where you can access no less than FIVE cable cars, and from where we rode a different farmer's cable in June (photos HERE). To get here was an experience this beautiful Saturday morning, as Postauto sent only one bus which was already full by the time our train arrived in Wolfenschiessen. More and more people tried packing into the bus, until the driver finally had to close the door and leave a half-dozen people behind. They should know by now how popular this area is on a rare nice Saturday in summer!

Surprisingly, even with this large amount of people, we only had to wait 10 minutes until our turn with the cable, and got to the Bannalp Plateau only 20 minutes later than expected. Also surprising was the unexpected number of people who were also doing the 2-hour, 600m ascent to the Bannalp Schonegg ridge.... this we hadn't expected. Fortunately, once there, most of the others headed right or left, and we were the only ones who descended to the Oberalp Farm to use their cable car.... after having a nice cold drink at their little outdoor "restaurant". 

The little cable car saved us 300m descent along a boring road, but even after that we still had five kilometers to walk along a forestry road for over an hour to the bus stop at St.Jakob (luckily next to the Isental River, and through some forested sections, so we stayed relatively cool). We were surprised to find out later on that this was an additional 480m descent to the 600m we had already done higher up! In all, this was a pretty successful hike that I will look back on fondly. 

From Oberrickenbach below there are several cable cars accessing the mountainsides. To come up here to Lake Bannalpsee, there are two cable cars, this one is the larger of the two. It carries about 12 people at a time, and we were lucky to be on the second run up the mountain. 

This alp is called Chrüzhütte, and this is the fabulous backdrop of Lake Bannalpsee (not visible from here)

Up ahead of us is the farm called Urnerstafel (large mountain hostel) from where we are going to ascend 600m or about two hours, toward the left. 

The hike from here to the bus stop at St.Jakob is about 4.5 hours. But using the small cable car at the Oberalp farm on the other side of the ridge saves us 30-40 minutes of walking. In any case, it takes almost two hours to get to the ridge. 

It was hot already early in the morning (we started at 9:30) so a tough 2-hour climb! But as we got higher and higher, we saw more of Lake Bannalpsee

Up ahead is the ridge which we want to cross. There was a farmer here hand-raking all the mown grass into bales. 

Daisies are such happy-looking flowers

Near the ridge (called Bannalp Schonegg) with a spectacular view down onto the lake and the Engelberg Valley

Here on the ridge, about half the hikers continued to the top of Mt. Chaiserstuhl, the peak on the right. 

View from the Ridge to the East. The side we came up on (to the West) is in Canton Nidwalden, and here along this ridge we are crossing into Canton Uri

It's down below in the center where we are headed. You can see how the hillside drops off into the valley at the back (called Grosstal) where we can save ourselves 300m descent by using their cable car. 

The other half of the hikers which came up on the same trail we did, were headed on toward the South along that trail behind Urs (toward Engelberg). Here is where we had our picnic lunch.

We were the only people heading down this way. 

Down there in the circle is the little cable car, which belongs to the farmers from the three farms below.

Sometimes we have to work hard crossing these alpine meadows!

Always pleasant when the pretty cows are in the pastures. 

Down below is the first of three farms up here. This one is called "Hinteralp". I am impressed at how close those large boulders are to the buildings!

The very pretty, but very poisonous Monkshood (Wolfsbane) is the flower we are mostly seeing at this time of year on our hikes. 

These goats were further up the mountain but came running down when they saw us. They are the prettiest, cleanest and shiniest goats I have every seen. 

For some reason, goats like to follow Urs on the mountain trails. They recognize him as a Swiss Mountain Man

VIDEO:

The goats are following Urs again!
(It's not the first time that goats have followed him in the mountains!)

Looking up past Hinteralp to the ridge we crossed

At the next farm called Oberalp we stopped for something cool to drink. This was a new experience, a drink called "Orangenmost" (a mixture of orange juice and light apple cider, a local recipe). It is also here that we had to arrange a time to descend with the cable car. The owner had to send someone to meet us there to operate it. 

Down below is the Grosstal Valley where we are headed. In the background are two well-known peaks here, Mt.Schlieren and Mt. Uri Rotstock (the pointy peak on the right). In his younger days, Urs had hiked to the top of that peak. 

Panorama view of the road which we could have used to walk down into the Grosstal Valley. But the cable car saved us 300m descent and almost 2 km on that road

Admiring the Oberalp Farmer's Cable Car, which is the main reason we arranged this particular hike! It is one of many such private cable cars in both Cantons Nidwalden and Uri. We have now tried out almost all of them!

The shadow of our cable car as we descend 300m to another farm called Gossalp

Here we are at the half-way point as the other "box" crosses on its way up!

After getting to the bottom and other alp called Gossalp, we watched as the next people descended, and the two cars crossed higher up. 

VIDEO:

(This is my own video, uploaded to YouTube)

What it is like to ride on this Farmer's Cable Car!

In the mountains the weather changes quickly. Anyone hiking on the Uri Rotstock right now is caught in the fog and can't see their way! On the other hand, we have great weather down here and the little cable car looks spectacular from here. 

To get to the closest bus stop at the back of the Isental Valley, we have to walk 5 km down the Grosstal Valley on roads like this, which turned out to be not too bad at all. 

Walking down the Grosstal Valley, along the Isentaler River (Isentalerbach)

Somewhere along the way out of the Grosstal Valley, a look back to the magnificent mountains of Canton Uri

Here we made it to the bus stop at St.Jakob, again with about 10 minutes to spare. This is looking back again where we walked 5 km down the Grosstal valley. We were surprised later to see that altogether it was another 480m descent, which is quite a lot. 

In all we walked 10.5 kilometers, but if we hadn't used the Oberalp cable car, it would have been over 12 km, and 1300+ meters descent. As it was, it was still a 4hr, 30min. hike for us. 

What the hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps

From St.Jakob at the back of the Isental Valley, it's another one of those spectacular bus rides down narrow hairpin roads to lake level at Lake Uri, near Flüelen. 

A beautiful day on Lake Uri near Flüelen (from here we rode the bus to Altdorf, and took a train home. This is fairly close to where we live, so we were home quite quickly!)

Also an area we hike a lot in! There are lots of cable cars here...