Flaming Larches in the Lötschen Valley, Largest Valley in Canton Valais

Thursday October 31, 2024 -- At this time of year, the larches turn bright yellow in the mountains of Canton Wallis and Graubünden, and we hadn't had an opportunity to witness the spectacle this year, so we decided on a 2-day trip to Canton Valais/Wallis again, because Urs also wanted to do a bus ride over the Simplon Pass to Domodossola in Italy, which meant spending a night in a hotel in Brig. (In what is now our favourite hotel, the Good-Night Inn).

For the first day I chose a hike in the Lötschen Valley (one of our favourite valleys, and the largest valley in Canton Valais), because webcam photos showed the larches were at their height in colour there. We have been in this beautiful valley several times already, and having walked the popular "Lötschentaler Höhenweg" (Lötschen Valley High Trail) three times already, I chose a shorter mountain trail, also starting at the summit station of the Laucheneralp cableway, and walking down to the village of Blatten at the valley bottom, where I was going to meet Urs a couple of hours later. During the time that I walked on the higher trail--with fabulous views of the peaks to the south of the valley (primarily Mt. Bietschhorn), the flaming larches, and the glaciers past Fafleralp at the back of the valley--Urs walked around Blatten for a bit and had his traditional ice cream sundae in a local restaurant there. (With his foot issues, he cannot do long mountain hikes at the moment).

When we met up at 1;30 p.m., we continued for another two hours down the valley all along the Lonza River, ending in the village of Kippel as the sun was setting behind the mountain there by 4 p.m. (I had expected the valley bottom to be in shadow at this time of year, but we had surprisingly lots of sunshine).

Heading back out of the valley by bus and then train to Brig was only a half-hour trip, and we could easily have made it home in three hours the same day (and saved the cost of a hotel room), but because we wanted to do another small walk near the Simplon Pass before taking the bus to Italy the next day, it was better to spend the night here. 

After a train ride through the Frutigen Valley to Goppenstein, there were THREE buses waiting to take all the people into the Lötschental Valley! On this most beautiful day (and not even a weekend), everyone wants to be out hiking. And starting at the summit station of the Laucheneralp cableway (in the red circle) is a popular trail called the Lötschentaler Höhenweg. (Lötschen Valley High Trail). 

View up into the Lötschen Valley as our bus heads into the valley. There is still a lot of shade in the valley bottom at this point, but that changed during the course of the day. 

As Urs' bus continued up the valley to Blatten (final bus stop at this time of year), I headed to the large cableway car in Wiler, to ride about 500 meters higher up the mountain. By the time the cable-car was ready to ride (luckily only about five minutes), there must have been over 100 people crammed in here, including dogs, bikes, and baby carriers.  

A look down at the rooftops of the village of Wiler, as the cablecar heads up the mountain. Later in the day, the road on the other side of the river was in sunshine, when we walked past here. 

Close-up view up to the end of the Lötschen Valley, and to the pass called the "Lötschenlücke". (There is a Swiss Alpine Hostel up there, and you have to walk over the glacier to get there!). The bus to Blatten goes only as far as the red circle at this time of year (further in summer) and that's where I walked down to, to meet up with Urs. 

On the restaurant terrace at the summit station of the cable car! It's a traditional mask of this valley, called a "Tschäggätä". This one is rather cute, compared to most of these masks which are evil-looking.  

The first part of my hike from Laucheneralp to the bus stop at Blatten should have taken about 1 hr. 40 minutes, and the second part on the valley bottom with Urs was 1 hour 20 minutes. (He ended up walking about 2 hours with his tour of Blatten and Eisten). I started at 11:30 in Laucheneralp, and met with Urs at 13:30. We then got to Kippel at 15:30, two hours later, as we took our time down the valley. 

A look above me as I start on my hike. The popular Lötschental High Trail starts above those chalets, whereas I chose to walk somewhat further down. It's just past 11:30 now. 

Heading up the Lötschen Valley. The three most prominent peaks here are Mt. Bietschhorn on the right, then Mt.Breithorn, and Mt. Schinhorn. 

The prominent peak here in the valley is Mt. Bietschhorn. 

My trail was along that road, with the most beautiful yellow forests of larches along the entire way. 

I took a detour through a little hamlet called Fischbiel. It wasn't an official trail (I had to cut through someone's backyard), but it saved me some uphill walking on the paved road!

At some point about here, I had to change into my shorts.... 

The entire mountainside was yellow. 

A stretch downhill through the forest

By now the valley bottom trail is all in sunshine, and we passed that cluster of barns later.

Another hamlet I passed through on my way down to Blatten was called Weissenried

Hamlet of Weissenried in the Lötschen Valley. 

Cutest little chapel in Weissenried

That building has a sign on it that reads "Spycher", which is a grainery. 

Another one of many large wooden houses here in the mountains of Canton Valais. 

Here I continue my descent to Blatten, along a paved road through the forest on the left. Back in September of 2019 we did a loop hike from Fafleralp further back in the valley, toward the end of the Lang Glacier. Those photos are HERE. 

I am now passing above the village of Blatten at just past 1 p.m., where Urs was waiting for me. I could have taken a short-cut from here directly to the village below, but Urs had earlier (by chance) discovered a small hamlet called Eisten at the east end of the village, for which he had sent me photos, so I wanted to go have a look at it for myself. This meant an additional 30 minutes from here. 

First view of the hamlet of Eisten as I emerged from the forest. (As the bus was not running all the way up to Fafleralp any more, I figured that all the people hiking on the popular High Trail would have to make their descent to Blatten through here. Normally the trail ends in Fafleralp, further back in the valley). 

On my way past Blatten, I saw some regional animals which we always like to see when we are in Canton Valais, namely the Val d'Hérens cattle and the Valais black-nosed sheep, which refused to look up from their grazing no matter how hard I tried to distract them. 

This is the tiny hamlet of Eisten, past the village of Blatten to the northeast. I was attempting to get a self-timed photo of myself, with my camera on a tripod.... I didn't end up walking into the hamlet, but turned around here to head down into Blatten. 

There are the two sheep, still not paying any attention to me!

Arriving into the village of Blatten from its east side now. 

Admiring the houses in Blatten. 

Urs' impressions of Blatten, including a cute little mailbox!

A rather modern-looking church for this old village! I didn't go into it this time, but had to walk around it to get to the path down to the river. 

This beautiful peak, the dominant one at the back of the valley, is called Schinhorn. 

Rows of houses parallel to the Lonza River. 

Down below, on the other side of the Lonza River, Urs is waiting for me in the parking lot (it is now 13:20). A bus is just leaving for back down the valley with a load of people, some of whom have probably made it here after their hike on the High Trail. 

I have to cross the Lonza River on this bridge. 

The view up to the end of the valley, to the Lang Glacier, Lötchenlücke (pass) and the Schinhorn mountain. 

Close-up view of Mount Schinhorn

A last look up to the village of Blatten before we head down the valley. 

Although Urs did a half-hour walk around Blatten while waiting two hours for me, his foot was feeling OK to continue on our walk along the valley bottom. We had lots of sunshine for the next two hours of our walk, which I was actually surprised about. 

A look up at the hamlet of Weissenried, which I had passed through on my way down the mountainside. 

The next village we pass on our way down the valley is called Reid. We overnighted here on our two-day trip in September 2019, when we did that round-tour to the Anen Hostel from Fafleralp. 

Close-up of the village of Ried, where we spent a night in the Bietschhorn Hotel in September 2019. 

Another look above us at the hamlet of Weissenried, just above the village of Ried. 

View of the snow-covered peaks directly on our left, or south side of the valley as we pass below Mt. Bietschhorn. There is a glacier there called Nestgletscher, and a trail going up there to an Alpine Hostel called Bietschhornhütte. 

Here was a river coming down from the Nest Glacier to flow into the Lonza River, and there had actually been a detour sign, requiring hikers to detour via the road (because there was no bridge here), which neither we, nor several other hikers wanted to do. So we looked for a favourable place to cross, which wasn't really a problem, so that we could continue the hike on this side of the river. 

Continuing along the nicer trail through wide open clearings and pastureland. 

At first we had thought that the detour sign was because there were mother cows grazing here with their babies, and that can get tricky sometimes. (But it was definitely because of the tricky crossing of the side river). 

The mother cows always watch us carefully when they are with their young in the pastures, to make sure we don't get too close. Usually there is one "boss cow" who pays the most attention, which seems to be that black one. 

We are loving our last day of October walk down the Lötschen Valley, unbelievable that it is still so mild that I can walk in shorts!

A look up above us to some pretty wild rock formations on the north side of the valley. It's here that I also walked on the higher trail, just about at the center of this photo. 

Passing that line of barns now, which I had seen from my walk higher up the mountain. 

This building has a very, very small door!

Time for a coffee break and to rest my feet (I even walked around barefoot for a while here). 

A familiar sight in the Swiss pastures, the spreading of manure. This one was pretty liquid, and the tank emptied quickly. Interestingly enough, it didn't smell. The next village we are now coming to is Wiler, where I started my excursion with the cablecar to Lauchernalp. 

A zoomed view of the Lauchernalp cablecars on their way past each other.

We always look out for the three breeds of animals very specific to Canton Valais, and are always happy when we've spotted all three: The Valais Black-Necked goat, the Val d'Hérens Cattle, and the Valais Black-Nosed sheep. And then there was another breed we weren't familiar with (bottom left). Perhaps a yak of some sort?

It was in the back past these two barns were we spotted our favourite black-nosed sheep!

Passing the village of Wiler, which is really quite the recreation resort village, as the cablecar is just here on the west end, with easy access to skiing in winter. (It was here in 1991 when we were staying in a rental here, that I walked the Lötschental High Trail the first time). 

Up ahead now is the village of Kippel where we ended the hike. (Originally we were going to end in the last village at the west end, namely Fernen, but by now it was already in shadow). 

Alleyways in the village of Kippel

Alleyways in the village of Kippel

We had time to stop into the village church

Village church in Kippel

At the bus stop now (3:30 p.m.) on the main road in the village of Kippel, with a final look to the Lang Glacier and Mt. Schinhorn at the back of the valley. The first bus that passed us did not stop, as it was full. It displayed a sign above the driver that read "Another bus is coming"!!

This is what my 3-hour hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. 

And these are the hikes we have done in the Lötschen Valley. The two purple ones are from 2019, the pink one (Lötschental High Trail) is the first time we were here together in 2015, and then we did the Lötschental High Trail once again in August of 2021 (photos HERE)

One final look up the Lötschen valley as we head to Goppenstein by bus. (From Goppenstein we take the south ramp train line to Visp, then another train to Brig, where we had booked a hotel for the night. We could actually have headed home from here, we would have been home by 7:15 p.m., but we wanted to do another excursion in this area the next day). 

As the train heads down to the city of Visp (deep in shadow at 4 p.m.) this is a view to the highest peaks of the Swiss Alps, namely the Mischabel Group. To the right is the Matter Valley heading to the Matterhorn, and to the left is the Saas Valley, heading to Saas Grund. 

We got to Brig just after 4:30 p.m., quite early still although the sun is gone. We went to our hotel room and then had a fine dinner in the hotel's restaurant at 6 p.m. (I forgot the photos, but I had a large mixed salad, and Urs had pork steak with french fries and lovely vegetables, which I ate). We also had breakfast at the hotel the next morning, which is included in the price of the stay. 

Location of the Lötschen Valley within Switzerland