Hiking in Switzerland – Gabrielle and Urs: May 2026

Friday May 1, 2026 -- May 1st is called Labour day in Europe, and it's a holiday in many countries, but in Switzerland only in certain Cantons. And on this most fantastically beautiful Spring day, we expected very many people to be traveling out to the popular hiking areas. (Also, because it's a long weekend, many people from northern countries were headed south again, clogging up the roads via the Gotthard Tunnel with waiting times of almost two hours).

One of our favourite places to hike is in the Maderaner Valley, one of the many beautiful side valleys of the Reuss Valley, in particular up to mountain plateau and lake called Golzern, accessed by a small cable car where the valley opens up after a hair-raising bus ride on a narrow winding road. On such a beautiful day as this, you have to get there early to avoid the long line-ups.

But as many cable-ways in Switzerland are currently undergoing revision, the Golzern cable-way was not operating this day, which meant almost no people on the bus, and only locals on the Golzern plateau, airing out their homes for the summer! The only way for non-locals to get there is a two-hour uphill climb.... OR a lesser-know alternative which is what we did: The small "cargo" cable-car from Bristen Village to the mountain hamlet called Waldiberg, and a two-hour walk from there, a walk we've done twice before in each direction (2017 and 2018) and it was time to do it again!

The perfect choice for this day, as we encountered almost no one on the trail. Our descent back into the valley bottom was a new one for us, along a steep cliff set up with a long set of man-made stairs and cable/rope handholds. Only the final stretch wasn't so successful, as we tried out an older unused trail which turned out to be extremely overgrown especially with stinging nettles, and even non-existent at one point. In all, it was over four hours of walking but we weren't at all tired!

After a relatively short train and bus ride to the town of Amsteg, a separate bus makes its way into the Maderaner Valley (only every two hours). On such a beautiful day, both this bus and the one from Erstfeld are usually very full. But this time it was only us and a group of young people with back-packs, most likely hiking up on foot.

By 9:45 we were in the bus, winding our way up a steep mountain road with many switchbacks, and a view down to Amsteg and the railway viaduct, where a train has just passed.

VIDEO:

The drive up the winding road is an experience itself.

I recorded part of this ride and uploaded it to my YouTube.

It can be viewed here.

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As the bus heads into the Maderanertal, you can see how steep the gorge is on the left. And straight ahead in a clearing on the other side of the gorge is the mountain hamlet of Waldiberg, accessed by a little "cargo" cable car from the village of Bristen.

We left the bus in the village of Bristen and headed toward the cable-car station. It took only 90 minutes of travel time to get here from home.

Up ahead, the little car is just making its way into the "station". It was empty, so probably someone else was just on their way up.

We have to "hike" up to the little station.

View of the village of Bristen from the cable-car station. In front of the church is a school, and the kids are playing soccer on the elevated and fenced area!

This is one of those cool cable-cars which you have to operate yourself. You either pay in coins (exact amount required, 12 Fr. for two people), or with a token which we purchased at the restaurant next to the bus stop, dropped into one of those boxes on the wall. Then you press a button inside the cabin to operate the cable-car. It's so much fun!

Riding up now toward Waldiberg, with a view of the village of Bristen below.

The steep ravine between Amsteg and Bristen. At the far end of the ravine you can see the town of Amsteg where the bus starts the winding climb to this upper valley.

View up the Reuss Valley (direction Gotthard) as our little cable-car climbs higher on the Waldiberg hillside.

The opposing cabin approaches... and then we get to the top station at 10:10. There are only a very few houses up here, accessed with this cable-car!

VIDEO:

Cable-car ride from Bristen to Waldiberg... and that view!

View from the top station of the Waldiberg cable-way, into the Maderaner Valley, and the Etzli Valley opposite.

From here it is a 1¾-hour hike simply to get to the cable-car station at the Golzern high plateau, which is where our bus continued on to. But as the cable-car is currently under revision, we would have had to walk up from the bus stop anyway, which is a steep ascent and takes almost as long. Plus I did that hike with my daughter in June 2015 and did not want to do it again.

We knew before we started that this hike from Waldiberg to Golzern (two hours), around the lake and down to the river in the Maderaner Valley would be over four hours of walking. But with the great weather and large variety, it never becomes tiring. At the end, we didn't even have sore feet. Starting at 10:15 in Waldiberg, we got back to the bus at the base station of the Golzern cable-car at 16:50, with enough time to spare for the 16:57 bus back to Amsteg, and ultimately a 90-minute trip back home.

A few houses up here on the Waldiberg clearing. We head off on our hike toward Golzern at 10:15.

The trail passes a couple more houses on the steep section up to the forest.

From here a superb view down into the Reuss Valley, where the road leads to the Gotthard Tunnel, where there is currently 10 km of backed up traffic with all the cars heading south for the long weekend. On the other side of the valley is where Urs' Dad grew up.

It's a steep climb of 250m to reach the high trail into the Maderaner Valley.

We are accompanied by views of the majestic Mount Bristen. For me hard to imagine that Urs summitted that peak in his younger days!

A familiar bench, as we are now on a section of trail which we have done once before in each direction. Most notably, the first time we hiked into the Maderaner Valley to Golzern, instead of using the cable-car there. That was in August 2017 when we started with a similar cargo cable-car but from Silenen in the Reuss Valley.

We had a short snack break here at the Eisten Look-out point, which is located exactly above the Gotthard Railway Base Tunnel, which runs 900 meters below here!

We got here at 11 a.m. and spent thirty minutes here before continuing eastward into the Maderaner Valley. It was quiet and peaceful, and I could have stayed longer! (Which is something we rarely do).

Continuing on along a very pleasant forest trail.

On the opposite side of the valley at the foot of Mt.Bristen is a long clearing of mountain farms. The farm in the red circle is called Limi, and it is where Urs' Great Aunt lived (i.e. his Grandmother's sister). He says they spent a lot of time there as kids, but were always warned to stay away from the barn because of the precarious position next to the steep drop into the valley!

This is a favourite section of trail for us, a zigzag uphill along a steep cliff, but not dangerous. But it would be difficult if you suffer from vertigo!

A final peek into the Reuss Valley to the west.

More interesting trails

And now a clear view into the Maderaner Valley.

Another look back at the mighty Bristen mountain, and the Etzli side valley.

I took this same photo back on our August 2017 hike, only this day we had better visibility, but more snow! It's also our first view of Lake Golzern at the far back.

By now it is 12:40 and high time for that lunch break. A very convenient view bench here! We haven't even reached the cable-car station yet, but have already been on the trail for 2½ hours, including the 30-minute break at Eisten.

The view from our lunch bench....

... and a zoomed view of the area around the beautiful Golzern Lake. There are two restaurants there as well. Our plan is to visit the little church this time, something we have not yet done although this is the sixth time we have been here! From there we want to take the trail on the south side of the lake, but even from here it looks like there still might be too much snow there.

Continuing on now, we pass a large swathe of torn trees, as this is an avalanche couloir. The locals have a lot of work ahead of them to clear this debris and prepare the hillside for summer grazing and harvesting.

It's exciting to see the first high alpine flowers, including the first gentians, and even a crocus!

We are now above the summit station of the Golzern cable-way, but looking back along the mountainside we had just walked to get here. Up at the arrow is the bench where we had our lunch break.

With a view over the first small hamlet up here, we came across the most beautiful hillside full of yellow buttercups!

Beautiful hillside of mostly buttercups! Back in September 2023, we hiked from here up the couloir on the right.

Other than the locals (airing out their homes and restaurants and preparing for the stream of tourists) who are allowed to drive up here, this group of young people were practically the only other hikers we met up here. They hiked up from the bus stop directly below, which takes almost two hours!

A close-up look behind us now toward the cable-car station on the left, and a few houses, one of which is where Urs' Grandmother grew up.

We have been up here on the Golzern high plateau five times before this trip, and we'd never been to have a look at the little mountain church! So this was our chance and we followed a new trail from here to the lake.

The little church displays traditional and local artwork. A hand-carved wooden altar was recently installed.

We'd never walked this way before, along a small trail next to the stream which runs out of the lake, later creating waterfalls as the water drops down the steep hillside into the Maderaner Valley.

Reaching the western bank of the lake. Our plan is to walk around the south side of the lake, but upon closer inspection, there was too much snow on the trail there. (Compare this photo to the same place in October 2023, photos HERE).

The trail along the south side of the lake still has lots of snow. Ultimately our descent starts there, so we are hoping that by the time we round the lake on the north and east side, that there won't be too much snow blocking our path!

Instead of following the south side of the lake, we headed along the boardwalk to go around the north side of the lake, a longer walk but always a pleasure.

As we walked along the edge of the lake, we observed dozens of small frogs either below the surface or just lounging on the surface. Many in process of pairing as well.

This heap of frogs was an unusual surprise. I had thought there was one dead frog beneath the pile, and the others were eating him. Just a thought.

VIDEO:

A weird pile of wiggling frogs!

Rounding the north side of Lake Golzern, we were surprised that there were already several people on the meadow lounging in the sun. Most of these people are probably locals taking a break from spring-cleaning. Back in June 2015 when I was here with my daughter, we swam in the lake here.

View westward from the east side of the lake.

A bit of an uphill hike on the east side of the lake to a look-out point. Compare this to when I took our US visitors here in October 2023 (photo from my blog HERE).

Back at the south end of the lake now, we did run into a wide stretch of snow, but it was no problem to cross. From here starts the steep half-hour descent to the Chärstelenbach River in the Maderaner Valley, mostly through forest but along a very interesting set of cement steps along a vertical cliff. We started the descent here at 2:30 p.m.

Along a vertical section next to a cliff wall was a long stairway with cement steps. What a lot of work to create a path down the mountain!

Down at valley bottom at 3 p.m. and crossing the Chärstelen River to continue our hike back to the bus stop along the left side of the river.

View up the Maderaner Valley. In August 2014 we did a two-day trip here, first hiking up to the Windgällen Swiss Alpine Hut from the Golzern high plateau, spending the night there, and then returning from much higher up this valley down to this spot.

Also further up the valley is a historical hotel called the Maderaner Berghotel, built in 1864 for wealthy British tourists to the valley, but still in operation. We stopped by there on their view terrace for something to drink on that August 2014 day when we hiked back out of this valley.

A few unmelted sections of snow on this side of the river as well.

Somewhere up there along those cliffs are the stairs we descended, but we couldn't make them out from here.

Here we are continuing on the local trail no.590: "Maderaner Valley High Trail", a section of trail we had not done back in 2014. It was a very pleasant section with narrow soft trails and views of the river below. At this point (3:50 p.m.) we still have 50 minutes to go, and are planning to catch the 16:57 bus at the Golzern cable-car station.

Along the way we get views of the river, and once in a while a bridge.

Pleasant soft trails through forest and mountain meadows.

From here a view down along our final stretch to the wider plain below.

Our trail takes us down past those houses below and to the road further back. On the other side of the valley is the mountain road which locals are allowed to use to get to their homes on the Golzern Plateau. This is also the road I descended on my 2015 trip here with my daughter.

The trail takes us past these homes to the road.

There is an outdoor pizza oven here!

Also across the valley next to the mountain road are the waterfalls created by the small stream which leaves the Golzern Lake, the one we walked along earlier.

We made an unfortunate choice to follow an older trail which turns out has not been cleared for years, and even was missing at a steep section. In retrospect, we should have stayed on the paved road.

Weirdly enough, the overgrown and unkempt trail passed below this lovely farm, which seems to be accessed from a smaller country road higher up, which, also in retrospect, we should have climbed up to. But we wondered whey the owners wouldn't keep the trail clean.

Directly across from the waterfalls now.

At a few spots, this alternate trail wasn't too bad! (Side note: The regular hiking trail is on a wide gravel road much higher up on the other side of the river).

Glad to soon be out of that overgrown section of trail. Sometimes we have good luck with these, other times not so much. It was supposed to be a short-cut instead of staying on the paved road, but it took us a long time to navigate.

Finally back on a proper road!

Nice to still see some blossoming trees

A final look into the back of the Maderaner Valley.

Up ahead our bus already waits at the base station of the Golzern cable car. It is now 16:48, so we are early enough for the 16:57 run. Usually, there would be masses of people wanting to get on the bus. As it turns out, there were only three of us getting a ride out of the valley!

A panel nailed to this rock reminds us that there was extensive flooding of the river in August 2005, destroying four buildings, an automobile workshop, several barns, several bridges and the cable-car station, as well as damaging many other buildings. 700 meters of the valley road were also washed away, and 130 people had to be evacuated. To avoid this happening again, the river was rerouted. The entire infrastructure was rebuilt within a half year.

This is what our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps, starting with the cable-car to the Waldiberg clearing above the village of Bristen, walking to the Golzern high plateau and lake, descending into the Maderaner Valley, and following the Chärstelen River back to the base of the Golzern cable-way, from where we took the bus back out to Amsteg in the Reuss Valley.

On these narrow roads the bus has the right of way (in fact, there should not even be other cars on the road during the time it takes for the bus to make its run. There are signs on both ends that tell the drivers when they are allowed to drive). It is always fun to watch the cars back up until they find a spot to get out of the way.