In the Footsteps of the Walser Peoples from Hinterrhein to Vals

Day 2 of Two-Day trip to Rheinwald (Photos of Day1 are HERE)

Sunday August 10, 2025 -- After the 15-km hike we did the day before at the San Bernardino Pass, we slept well in our little apartment in the small village of Hinterrhein, the final village at the back of the Rheinwald Valley before the road crosses over the San Bernardino Pass into the Mesolcina Valley. We got up early to another fabulously beautiful day, perfect for our planned crossing of the Valserberg Pass into the Peil Valley to the north.

In the months of July, August and October, alpine taxis offer (cheap!) rides partway up the mountains, saving about 500 meters of ascent, so we can better enjoy the rest of our hikes to mountain passes and into other valleys. We have taken advantage of these transports on another occasion when we spent several days in the Rheinwald region (see also HERE), and this particular hike was one we still had on our list.

Besides a bit of a disagreement with our young driver, who would not take us all the way to the advertised destination--requiring an additional 20 minutes uphill walk--(we also were pretty sure he had been at the Zurich Street Parade the night before and probably hadn't even gone to bed by our 8:30 ride which we had to reserve), we were still glad to only have to walk about 90 minutes to the pass. It was so beautiful up there that we stayed longer than we ever usually stay in one place to admire the landscape.

The rest of the walk was a long 9-kilometer walk (3 hours) down the Peil Valley to the village of Vals, from where we could take a bus to Ilanz and a train home (total 3 hours, 40 minutes to get home!). We didn't hurry, and even had time for dessert in Vals before catching the 16:35 bus. The weather was perfect, always a breeze (good thing, as it would have been quite hot otherwise, as there is barely any shade along the way) and even though the air was hazy, we still had magnificent views. 

The trail we were walking is a regional themed trail called the "Walserweg", which gives insight into the migration of the Walser peoples throughout Switzerland in the 13th Century. 

Looking out of the glassed-in porch of our little rented apartment, this is the view to the back of the valley at 7:20 a.m.! This valley is the second source of the Rhine River, called the Hinterrhein. (There are two major sources, the Anterior and Posterior Rhine Rivers. This here is the Posterior, or "Hinterrhein", which has its source at those mountains right of center on this photo). 

We used the lovely kitchen only to use the fridge, brew coffee, and eat our joghurts, then off to look at the village again (we had been here once before in July 2022). The ceilings are pretty low in these old houses! And the walls are so thick that the rooms stay cool... in fact, the floor was icy cold!

The main square in front of the house where we are staying. Up at the arrow is where we are going to be crossing the Valserberg Pass. 

All the houses in this village have a name, printed on a panel next to the door. This one next to the town fountain is aptly named "Under äm Brunnä", or "Below the fountain". 

This is the house we stayed in, with the glassed-in porch which was so nice to sit at the evening before. Since it was right next to the church, we went to have a look there, of course. The church dates from 1219 and is under monument protection. 

The little church in Hinterrhein. From the way the walls were whitewashed behind the altar (with its rather modern-looking organ), we figured there were, as was often the case, frescoes to be discovered beneath. In particular, the baptismal trough in the foyer has historical value, as it was put here by the Walser people to commemorate their migration into the Rheinwald region in 1270. Hinterrhein is the oldest documented Walser settlement in Canton Graubünden. 

Here is the house named "Bachhuus", where we had a fine dinner the evening before, in the small room near the entrance on the left. 

The old bell-tower comes into view as we head up a side alley. A fun detail we noticed the last time we were here is the sign on that house which means "end of 30-km/hour zone", which is a hoot, because there is no way any vehicle can travel 30 km/hour here!

Those two hikers were also at dinner the night before.... and it looks like they preferred to walk the whole way up to the pass (890 meters instead of the 430 meters which we did, getting a ride with the little Alpine Taxi!). They actually ended up passing us before we got to the pass!

A view across the rooftops of Hinterrhein at 8:20 a.m. 

Down by the main road now, this is a view up the valley at the Hinterrhein River, which is one of two major sources of the Rhein River. 

We had to reserve ahead for the little Alpine Taxi (two other ladies rode along as well). The young man did not drive us all the way to the expected starting point of our hike. He claimed he never went that far. (We did call to confirm, and were told that two years ago there was construction there!) We had to walk 20 minutes more than planned. Still, it only costs 10 Fr. and saves us about 500 meters of uphill walking!

A look up the Hinterrhein Valley as the little van heads up the mountain. 

This is Alp Piänetsch, which is where our hike starts on the Valser Trail, and where we expected to be brought up to. But the driver let us up one kilometer further down the road, and it took us 15 minutes to walk here. 

Studying the trail markers at Alp Piänetsch. From here it should be one hour to the pass, and 4¼ hours to Vals! It is now 9 a.m. 

Starting at Alp Piänetsch above the village of Hinterrhein, we walked over the Valserberg Pass and down the Peil Valley to Vals. We started at 8:45 a.m. where the young man dropped us off, and got to Vals at 3:45 p.m. It was a 12½ kilometers. We are walking along Regional Trail no.35: "Walserweg", of which we have done several sections already, including the stretch across the Tomül Pass in July 2024. 

Description of the Walserweg Trail, a total 320-km themed trail which "starts" at the town of San Bernardino south of the San Bernardino Pass, passes via the village of Hinterrhein and over the Valserberg Pass to Vals (the stretch we are currently doing), then over several mountain passes in Canton Graubünden and ending just across the border in Austria in eastern Switzerland in the Prättigau region. 

Nice views down into the valley as we make our way up to the pass. (Toward the left is the San Bernardino Pass to the Mesolcina Valley heading south). 

A close-up look at the village of Hinterrhein, the oldest Welsh (Walser) settlement in Canton Graubünden (mid 13th Century)

A whole herd of little cows up here near the pass! They always observe us carefully!

Spending some time with the cows up here!

On the right of the photo is the San Bernardino Pass, where we were the day before. 

The red dotted line shows approximately where we walked the day before, above the San Bernardino Pass. 

The mountain on the right with the glacier is called the Rheinquellhorn, which translates to "Source of the Rhine". Hidden from here and more to the right is a half-circle of peaks from which the waters of the glaciers gather to form the source of the Hinterrhein River. 

Proudly posing at the Valserberg Pass at 10:45! It took us much more than an hour to get up here, with a couple of breaks along the way and visiting with the cows! (It should only have taken an hour, and we took almost two hours!)

There's a military bunker under this hill. We headed to the top of that hill for a very long break!

We spent about 45 minutes up here, enjoying the view. We rarely ever stay in one spot this long!

We really liked it up here! A view down the Peil Valley, which we are going to walk down later. (It's called the Peil Valley because the Peil River flows down here). Unfortunately the air is quite hazy and we can barely see the mountains of the Surselva Valley to the north. 

To our east are these crags and they are part of Mount Valserhorn.

11:40, and it's time to continue on our walk on this beautiful day. According to the trail markers, we still have 3¼ hours to go!

A look behind us as we head down the from the pass now. 

A few small ponds up here, and only a very few other hikers. (Unfortunately we couldn't quite get far enough out of earshot of those two ladies....!). 

At 12:25 we got to this cairn at a location called Zum Hirt, where we got a first look at the roads at the valley bottom. 

Even though the trail was all in one direction out of the valley, there were interesting sections where we had to cross streams and walk on narrow steep trails.

Many views up the valley! There is a small glacier at the very back, it is called the Fanell Glacier. That is the Peil River below, which gives its name to the valley. 

Up ahead we can just make out our trail higher up on the hillside on the right, passing through a farm and a small hamlet nearer to the entrance of the vally. Also below, where the bridge crosses the river, we could make out a restaurant with lots of umbrellas!

Here is one of only two farms we passed on this mountainside. It is called Walletsch Stafel, and the trail was very overgrown below the buildings where we had to descend to cross another side stream. 

From a side valley, a lovely river descends, creating a couple of waterfalls. We had to descend to a small bridge to cross this river. 

View down the Peil Valley. 

Close-up of a little hamlet on the other side of the valley!

Down below is the little bridge that we had to cross. 

Crossing the little bridge over the river at the Walletsch Alp

Next to the river, Urs discovered a natural spring coming out from under this rock, so we filled our bottles, as there is nothing better than cold spring water out of the mountain!

There were still some flowers way up here in the mountains!

As we continue down the valley, we keep looking behind us up the Peil Valley. Upper left is approximately where we walked down from!

Down below at the Inder Peil Restaurant, there was an event going on. From here there was a trail going down to valley bottom. You can get to Vals along the valley bottom road as well, but it is much nicer to continue walking along the mountain trail!

We are enjoying our walk along the Walser Trail out of the Peil Valley. 

This was the only shady spot we found along the long stretch to the next farm, and my socks were soaked as well as my blouse, so I found my way through the stinging nettles to sit here and cool off for a while! (And dry my socks and wash the sweat off with a face-cloth!)

Far behind us we can see where we descended from the Valserberg Pass!

Across the valley is a little group of houses with a tiny chapel, called Chappelihus. Most interesting for us was that our map indicated that there were five natural springs coming out of the hillside just above those little houses!

A close-up look at the cute little chapel across the valley!

Still some lovely meadow flowers now that we are further down from the high alpine region!

We are always impressed at how the mountain farmers can mow these steep hillsides! Also interesting is that the official hiking paths remain dark green after mowing!

This was the second farm we passed along the way. We are very happy to find a water trough here!

Filling up our water bottles again with nice cold water! (Again, the arrow shows where we descended from). 

Along this short stretch of road which comes up from the main valley road, we reach a little hamlet called "Uf der Matta". 

Approaching the hamlet of "Uf der Matta". In the background are are the mountains that form the west side of the Valser Valley. 

Looking down at slate roofs, always pretty. 

Very nice trail through some still-flowering meadows!

Before starting on the descent to the town of Vals, we get a good look across the Valser Valley to a hillside which we walked down from Lake Zervreila (not visible on the left) on a lovely two-day trip we did in July 2024 .

Rising high at the back of the Valser Valley and on the south side of Lake Zervreila is the magnificent Zervreila Horn. This mountain is nicknamed the "Matterhorn" of Canton Graubünden. 

And now a look down over the town of Vals and down the Valser Valley. This is where the famous Valser Wasser Mineral Water Company is located (purchased by Coca Cola in July 2002). 

Arriving into the town of Vals at 3:45 p.m. The next bus out of the valley is at 16:35, so we had plenty of time this time to find a restaurant for one of Urs' beloved ice cream sundaes!

Lovely houses here in Vals. (This is the style of the Walser houses)

Following the road into the main square of Vals. 

On the north side of the main square in Vals is the Edelweiss Restaurant. Even with the umbrellas on the patio in front of the restaurant, it was cooler inside the restaurant. Urs' ice cream sundae with pralinéed nuts was very tasty. And of course we had our standard Panaché as well. 

Walser houses along the main square in the town of Vals. 

Main square in Vals. I did not go into the church this time, as I had visited it last time when we were here in 2022. HERE is a photo collage of what the interior looks like. 

The river which flows down the Vals Valley from Lake Zervraila (with its source in the same group of mountains as the Hinterrhein River) is called the Valser Rhein River, another one of several major rivers which join the Main River (Vorderrhein) in the Surselva Valley to the north. 

At 4:30 p.m. we boarded the bus for the ride to Ilanz at the north end of the Valser Valley. From here it was a three-hour 40-minute trip home. 

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps, starting about 400 meters higher than the valley bottom at Hinterrhein, crossing the Valserberg Pass and walking down the Peil Valley to Vals. 

These are all the hikes we have done in the region around the San Bernardino Pass, the Rheinwald (Hinterrhein Valley) and the Valser Valley. 

From Ilanz, the train heads through the Rhine Gorge, a trip we have done more times than I can count, and each time I have to take photos!

The train heads from Ilanz to Chur through the Rhine Gorge along the Vorderrhein River (the other main Rhine River next to the Hinterrhein River, which is where we started this morning!)

Here at Reichenau near Chur is where the Hinterrhein River joins the Vorderrhein River. (From here the Rhine River heads north along eastern Switzerland to enter Lake Constance (Bodensee). 

Location of the Valser Valley within Switzerland.