Short Walk along the Gelgia River near the Julier Pass, to Bivio

Tuesday June 18, 2024 -- Second part of Day 1 in the Surses Valley: After our four-hour hike from Bivio to Alp Flix and down to the bus station in Sur (those photos are HERE), we returned by bus to Bivio at 5:10 p.m., but this was too early for us to go for dinner and retire for the night. The bus was continuing on to the Julier Pass and St.Moritz (the final run of the day), so we stayed on the bus till the next stop on the way to the pass (not all the way, that would have been too long) and from there walked another four kilometers back to Bivio, mostly along the Gelgia River (Gelgia and Güglia are the Romantsch words for Julier).

We are glad we did this, even though we had already walked 11.5 kilometers, so in all we did about 16 kilometers of walking this day! The four kilometers took us much longer than an hour, though, so we only got back at 7 p.m, but we saw marmots, and walked close to the raging river, and saw our village from above. 

There are actually several restaurants in Bivio, and we had heard that one of them had great pizza, but with my luck, the "Pizzaiolo" (Pizza Chef) had a day off, so no pizza. Being otherwise too crowded there, we found another place we liked better, and had very tasty local specialties called Capuns and Pizokels. Then someone came in to buy their house-made Engadiner Nusstorte (local walnut cake), claiming they were the best far and wide, so we bought one too! And we then had a good night sleep, looking forward to the next day, which was supposed to be an even nicer one...

The first bus stop after Bivio on the road to the Julier Pass was a four-minute ride with the bus, and a 90-minute walk back for us! There's our bus continuing on toward the Julier Pass. 

Here is where we started at 5:17 p.m, at a little farm called Alp Suracqua

We had to walk through the Suracqua farm to join the trail which actually comes down from the Pass. (It would have been too long of a hike for us to have started right at the pass, plus we would have had to listen to the car traffic the whole way, but it wasn't too bad at this time of evening anyway). 

The first marmots of the season! Actually, on the hike up to Alp Flix we saw many freshly dug holes, but neither heard nor saw the marmots. 

Heading down now back to Bivio

The wide open valley east of Bivio. 

Instead of getting out at Bivio on the way back from Alp Flix, we stayed on the bus on its way to the Julier Pass, and got out at the stop called "Suracqua", from where we walked a little over 4 km back to Bivio (took us about 90 minutes. We started there at just after 5:15 p.m. and got back to Bivio close to 7 p.m.!)

There is a lot of water in the feeder rivers coming down from the mountains to the south!

VIDEO:

So much water!

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A pasture with lots of cows, many babies also hiding in the tall grasses. This bull was pretty impressive! You don't see a lot of bulls in the pastures with the cows. 

A look behind us up toward the Julier Pass. 

This is a cute group of barns, they almost look like vacation cottages!

Two different ways to get back to Bivio, we took the one down to the river

This was kind of exciting, a small walkway near the raging waters of the Gelgia River. 

VIDEO:

Raging waters of the Gelgia (also Güglia and Julier) River

A glimpse of the village of Bivio on the left as the valley turns to the north. 

We thought that pointed rock was pretty interesting. 

Final descent into the town of Bivio. It was about 7 p.m. by the time we got to the restaurant, but we were glad we did this extra hike!

The restaurant we settled on was a bit outside of town to the north, it was called Guidon, and there were only a handful of people there. The Capuns (upper left, sort of like cabbage rolls) and Pizokels (lower right, a type of Spätzle and LOADED with cheese!) were very yummy, as was their Engadiner Walnut cake, which we actually purchased the next day in the small grocery store across from our accommodation. (I have to admit, though, my mom's was better).

This was the house where we had a room with a balcony, top floor. We ended up not even using the balcony, unfortunately. And good thing we were away all day, as the building right across the alleyway was being renovated. This seems to often be my luck. 

What both our hikes look like on Google Satellite Maps: A 4-hour hike from Bivio to Sur via Kanonensattel and Alp Flix, and then another 90 minutes to walk from Suracqua on the Julier Pass road back down to Bivio. About 16 km in all on this day!

Where the Surses Valley is located in Switzerland. 

A map of the boundaries of Parc Ela, Switzerland's largest nature park. The Surses Valley is right down the center, and we had never been here before, so it was high time to visit this area. 

Some side notes on bad luck for me this trip:

- I lost my earbuds in the train from Chur to Tiefencastel, and they were never found

- The bus from Tiefencastel was full of noisy children going on a school outing when we boarded, and I didn't have my earbuds any more to block the noise!

- There was construction going on on the building not three meters across from our rented room! (This is the second time this has happened, and a third time there were many children living in the house!)

- I got bitten by two ticks the next day (tiny ones, the size of poppy seeds. But we removed them fully).

- On the second day, the weather wasn't as nice as expected, clouds covering the mountain peaks, and very hot temperatures in the lower part of the valley where we walked.

- Second day's hike was long and tedious due to the heat and mostly paved roads. 

But we were glad it didn't rain!