The Hüttchopf Trail in Zurich Oberland, from Wald to Steg

Saturday January 27, 2024 -- After all the beautiful snow we had in early January, the temperatures got warm again and rainy, so the places we might have chosen to do more "winter" hiking are looking kind of ugly.

The snow is all gone at elevations of at least 1500 meters, so aside of the trails being wet in places, it is possible to do some regular mountain hikes at lower elevations. Since this weekend was to have lots of sunshine in many places (except around Zug and Luzern, where there is often a lot of fog), we went in search of a mountain hike above the fog. We didn't have to travel far, just east of Lake Zurich and along the edge of the Toggenburg. We did an almost four-hour hike along a trail called the "Hüttchopfweg", which takes you up and over the summit of a mountain called the Hüttchopf, at 1231 meters one of the highest mountains in Canton Zurich!

I can hardly believe that after about five weeks of barely any uphill walking, we managed an ascent of over 600 meters! The climbing itself wasn't the hardest part, it was the HEAT! With temperatures of about 10 degrees, my legs were way too warm in my jeans.

We enjoyed some very nice long-distance views of Lake Zurich and all the Glarus and Bernese Alps, even when a bit of fog rose to cover the sun. And we also stopped for a cup of coffee at the highest restaurant in Canton Zurich! (Berggasthaus Scheidegg).

The official Hüttchopf trail starts in Wald at the south end of the valley of the Mühlebach river, but that would have meant an additional 2 km of walking up a very nice ravine, which we have done before (see HERE), so we took a bus to as close and as high up the hill as we could to where we could join the trail. We first have to descend into the ravine, and then climb that first hill.

Some cute doggies watching us!

The place we started at is called Niederholz. From here we descended into the ravine to join the trail that comes up the ravine from Wald below, and then we climbed up that first hill. At first we were worried about the fog, but soon it lifted and the day became very warm.

Our 11-km hike to the summit of Mount Hüttchopf, a 4-hour hike with a climb of over 600 meters! The Hüttchopf Trail is local Trail no. 864. We started at 10:50, and caught the 15.54 train in Steg.

Coming down from the hill on the right, we join Trail no.864 here at the bottom of the Sagenraintobel (Sagenrain Ravine)

Lovely sunlight in the forest here.

Ascending the hill now on the north side of the ravine, we get the first fabulous views of Lake Zurich and all the Alps in the southwest.

We can even see all the way to the Bernese Alps (Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau)

These pretty goats are enjoying the sunshine as much as we are! Here on this hillside it was almost too warm to walk uphill in these jeans.

Half an hour of uphill through the forest and we come to a clearing at the Josenberg hill just past noon. From here it's 40 minutes to the restaurant at Scheidegg, and another 2½ hours to Steg, which is the goal of our hike.

Another 15 minutes through the forest and we get the first look at the Scheidegg Restaurant, the highest altitude restaurant in Canton Zurich. I am really pleased with this great mountain trail.

Looking to the west past Lake Zurich we can see Mount Rigi and Mount Pilatus near Luzern

Admiring the view!

Last stretch before reaching the Scheidegg Berggasthaus at 12:40. We decided to look for a bench to eat our sandwiches, and then have coffee and dessert at the restaurant afterwards

This is the view we had as we got closer to the hotel. What a view! It's the Glarus Alps.

And here's the bench we found where we ate our picnic lunch!

The view from our picnic lunch bench. You can just make out lake Zurich. In the back on the right side are Mounts Rigi and Pilatus, and further left, the Bernese Alps

Back at the Gasthaus we saw that there was only a glassed-in terrace restaurant, but we wanted to sit on the open terrace. That was only self-serve from a kiosk on the other side, and they didn't serve ice cream sundaes. So Urs just got two coffees for that table on the edge of the patio.

Gasthaus Alp Scheidegg is the highest altitude Gasthaus in Canton Zurich (1200m). We found that out because that's what was printed on the sugar packet! We had coffee on the open terrace, because there were people smoking inside the glassed-in one. Bottom left photo is Urs getting coffee from the man at the kiosk.

Here's us enjoying our coffee on the large patio in front of the barn!

And then, as so often happens, one single cloud moved in between us and the sun, and then it got cold! But it didn't last long

View from the patio to the Glarus Alps to the south

Continuing on now at 1:30 p.m., our next goal is the summit of the Hüttchopf in 30 minutes, and we still have another two hours to walk to our goal of Steg.

As we head along the mountainside, a look to the East shows Mount Säntis in all its glory

Ahead of us, the summit of the Hüttchopf. You can see the trail going to the top

Quite a few people going up and down here! Many with their dogs.

Here's Urs reaching the summit at 1:53 p.m., that took us just under 30 minutes to get here!

View from the summit of Mount Hüttchopf. The Alpstein Massif (Mt. Säntis) on the left, and the Churfirsten mountains in the enter. Those are the mountains of northeastern Switzerland.

A look down into the valley on the west side, to the small town of Fischenthal (where the church is)

Another view of Mount Säntis

And a closer look at the Churfirsten mountains. I believe this one is the main peak, the Chäserrugg.

And last but not least, Mount Schnebelhorn directly to the east. At 1291 meters, it's the highest mountain in Canton Zurich, and only 60 meters higher than the summit we are on! We hiked across that ridge and Mount Schnebelhorn in October 2020, those photos are HERE

Summit of Mount Hüttchopf, 1232 meters above sea level. We are walking along local Trail no.864: "The Hüttchopf Trail". (Hüttchopfweg)

And now time to start on our long descent. (90 minutes from here to Steg). We were very happy about the trails. There was little paved roads, and only a few sections were muddy. It's now 14:05. Next junction is Tannen, where we have to decide if we'd rather take the shorter route and end our hike in Fischenthal on the left.

Cool tree, nice trails.

Here at the Tannen Farm, we could have descended into the valley directly to Fischenthal (40 minutes) but we decided to continue north to Steg, which was only 20 minutes longer. In retrospect, we might have had more sunshine in Fischenthal.

There is a ski hill here, but unfortunately for the lower elevation ski regions, the snow season is never long enough any more. In the center at the back you can just make out the village of Steg, our goal.

A close-up look at the village of Steg. The train station is where the arrow is, so we knew that by the time we got there, we would be in the shadow of the mountain to the west.

Last stretch before we cross the Mühlebach River on the left, which joins the Töss River a bit further on. The Töss River comes out of the Töss Valley on the right.

This used to be a factory building. They sure have made it pretty!

This Gasthaus called "Landgasthof und Metzgerei zum Steg" has a nice history. As this town is on the St.James Trail via the valley of the Mühlebach River (Fischenthal), the building has served as an accommodation for pilgrims since the middle of the 16th Century.

(This information panel at the train station shows the section of the St.James pilgrim trail through Canton Zurich, and the history of the "Gasthaus zum Steg", which received its tavern license in 1599.)

Cute wall decoration!

I loved this particular house across from the train station, but could find no history on it.

We reached the Steg train station at 15:42. As we expected, it was in shadow here (Fischenthal would have had more sunshine, and we would have caught a train there 30 minutes earlier). Here, we only had to wait about 10 minutes for the 15:54 train.