A Section of the Aargauer Trail from Salhöhe to Aarau

Wednesday October 4, 2023 -- Not the best day to travel to the mountains as it as pretty overcast there, but we still wanted to do some walking, so we went to the Jura foothills North of the city of Aarau where there was sunshine, walked along the ridge from Salhöhe Pass to the lookout at Wasserflue, and then walked all the way down the mountain to the city of Aarau.

Since Canton Aargau (Argovia) consists of 35% of forest, most of our hike was through forest, with a few meadows and a nice view over the old town of Aarau. Unfortunately, there is a large military training grounds exactly in the path of our hike, and we had to endure machine gun practice, not the nicest for an impromptu afternoon walk. 

The old part of Aarau (on the Aar River) is very pretty, as many of the houses have intricately-painted roof gables. 

This hike would not make it into the annals of our favourite hikes, but we didn't want to travel far, and we picked this stretch because it is part of the 100-km-long themed trail called the "Aargauerweg" (or "Argovia Trail") of which we have now just about completed the entire stretch (in several sections). In retrospect, we should have waited for a clear day with good visibility, so that we would have had the best of the view from the Wasserflue, as we did back in May of 2017, when we did a similar walk. 

Riding through old town Aarau by bus on the way to Salhöhe Pass

Some features of the city of Aarau as seen from the bus

Crossing the Aar River looking west, this is the Eniwa Hydroelectric Plant. 

Passing through the city of Erlinsbach where we had to change to a different bus. Interesting fact: Half of this city is in Canton Aargau, the other half in Canton Solothurn! (This church is actually in the Solothurn side of Erlinsbach). 

We got to Salhöhe Pass at 12:15, where we started on our 3-hour hike. First stop is the look-out point at Wasserflue (one hour to walk) where we had our picnic lunch, and from there it was another 2¼ hours to walk down to the city of Aarau 

This is a section of Trail no.42: "Aargauerweg" which we had not yet done, so that was the reason for randomly choosing this trail today. Also, we started late, so needed something relatively close by (2 hours travel time). It still ended up a solid 3-hour and 11 km afternoon walk. 

The view over the Argovian landscape to the north of the Jura ridge. 

The walk to the Wasserflue look-out point was all through the woods

This trail is along the crest of the Jura foothills, and most of the trail was this layer of almost vertical raised rock. 

We got to the look-out point at 13:05, so 50 minutes after starting our walk at the Salhöhe Pass. A drawback of the overcast skies in the mountains is that we didn't see any of the Alps. (With good visibility, you can see the whole range of the snow-covered Alps from here. We did this same stretch in May of 2017 with the Föhn wind effect, where the mountains looked so close... those photos are HERE)

The view to the east and southeast, to what is probably the city of Küttigen

View to the north, to the Benkerjoch Pass

This is where we had our picnic lunch, a bit late in the day. 

Heading downhill now below the crest, a look at the Wasserflue communication tower. 

When we were not in the forest, we walked through agricultural landscapes

The forests of Canton Aargau

One of many nice forest trails

An opening in the forest, looking east

For a part of our descent we were accompanied by the sound of machine-gun practice, which was not very enjoyable. This is the military training-ground at Gehren. 

Military training grounds

Heading toward the Buechwald "Oak Reservation Forest", a unique and rare oak forest in canton Aargau. We walked through this forest for 40 minutes before reaching a look-out over the city of Aarau

I don't know what these are, but it was a very pretty field of purple flowers

We reached the "Alpenzeiger" look-out point at 3:40 p.m, with this view of old-town Aarau, the Aar River, and the bridge which we crossed into the city.

Zoomed view of the old town of Aarau, from the north side

Zoomed view of the old town of Aarau, from the north side

Heading down to river level. 

Another view of the old town shortly before reaching river level. 

Crossing the bridge over the Aar River. 

Before heading to the train station, which is on the south side of the old town, we wandered a few streets to admire the painted roof gables. 

Old town Aarau

Such pretty roof gables. There is a lot to admire.

These are also very interesting roof overhangs! Earlier, there used to be cranes in these windows, to lift heavy things into the apartments which you could not bring up the stairs. 

One of the city gates

Tower at the city gate

Watching the bus make its way through the narrow city gate, on the south side of the old town. 

This is what our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps

Location of Aarau and the Northeastern section of the Jura Foothills. (The Jura Mountains are mostly along the Swiss-French border). 

Description of the "Aargauerweg" (or Argovia Trail). The entire themed trail is about 100 km long. 

We have just about completed the entire "Aargauerweg" from Frick to Muri. We'll do the northern section from Salhöhe Pass to Wittnau (direction Frick) next Spring, hopefully. 

The view from the Wasserflue look-out point on a clear day. You can see the entire range of the Alps from here. When there is the Föhn-Wind effect, the mountains seem closer and larger. My photos from that day's hike are worth looking at HERE