Aeuli Gorge near Lichtensteig in the Toggenburg Region

Friday June 5th, 2026 -- It was only going to be a bit nice in the afternoon this day, so we did not plan a big hike. Instead we went to visit a friend in Mogelsberg in the Toggenburg reagion east of Lake Zurich. Since this is quite close to the Kägi Cookie Factory in Lichtensteig in the Thur River Valley (where I had hiked to Wattwil via this cookie factory back in November 2025), we decided to stop there again on the way home, to buy our favourite cookies. (And as it turns out--since this often happens with the few things I actually enjoy--they don't make my favourite cookies anymore... or so the ladies at the shop told me).

To make a bit of a walk out of this afternoon, we headed first from the Lichtensteig train station to a small and locally-known gorge of which I had seen a couple of videos on the Internet, where you can access a pretty waterfall via a very narrow passage through cliffs made of Molass Rocks. As we would never make a trip here for just this short walk, it was a good idea to add this on to today's outing. And to finish off, we walked up to the cookie factory. 

It was quite interesting to squeeze through the passage between the cliffs, but because of recent heavy rains, the trail was very slippery and steep in places. And due to a lot of water from the falls, we could not cross onto the popular rocky beach. But it was worth this detour in any case. 

This is how the day started out on our trip into the Toggenburg

Toggenburg countryside near Brunnadern at 9:40 a.m.

After our visit and lunch with our friends, we took the train to Lichtensteig, which lies on the Thur River near Wattwil. (This is a poor photo... I took much nicer photos on my November 2025 walk along the railway bridge at this exact place. See this photo--> HERE). 

At 2 p.m. we started on our short walk here at the train station in Lichtensteig. (Although the school children had boarded the train with us in Mogelsberg, and gotten out here as well, they luckily did not walk the way we were going!)

Strictly walking time is only 45 minutes for this short walk near the tour river. But starting at 2 p.m., we then caught the bus across from the Chocolate Cookie factory at about 3:15 p.m, with the 20 minutes which we spent in the little gorge. 

Cute little house along the way. This looks like it might once have been a train station!

We are walking on the west side of the Thur River, and this is the view of the village of Lichtensteig on the east side of the river. (I did not take a detour to that church at the time, as it looked too modern). 

Unfortunately we had a long stretch uphill on a paved road, not my favourite kind of walking, although at least the sun wasn't burning down! In the circle on the left is a picture of what Urs is look at on the hill above the road. 

Another good look at the row of houses along the main street in Lichtensteig. The road is on the other side, and this is the riverside view, although the river is quite a ways below. 

Another cute house and garden. 

Down below us is the road and the railway line, and up ahead we can see the bridge which we have to cross over them, and just beyond that is the little gorge we are going to have a look at. 

View from the bridge to the south. We came up past that house on the right. 

This is a particularly interesting (?) sculpture made of rusted tin cans!

After a 25-minute walk from the train station we get to the small side trail leading to the waterfall in the Aeuli Gorge. 

A few photos of Urs on the narrow and wet trail (it's really just a very short trail!) among the interesting cliffs. At least there was plenty of water in the falls!

From behind the falls you can see a "beach" area next to the river (pebbles, not sand) which we could not access because there was too much water flowing from here into the Thur River. 

VIDEO:

of the waterfall in the Aeuli Gorge

This is one of those fun trails where you can walk behind the waterfall! I had to be careful because the  surface was wet and slippery. Here is Urs taking a photo of me taking the video of the waterfall. 

It's always fun to walk behind a waterfall!

Through the trees I could make out the bridge which we were going to cross, continuing up the hill on the east side of the river to the Kägi cookie factory. 

A look behind us as we cross the little bridge. 

Looking up the Thur River in the direction of the waterfall which you cannot see from here (it's on the right side of the photo direction). 

Another view of the Thur River through this narrow gorge area. 

And this is what the river looks like on the north side of the bridge. 

According to the trail marker, it's 10 minutes to the Loreto Chapel on the main road, and very near there is the Kägi factory. 

Beautiful flowering bushes!

Up at the main road now at the Loreto Chapel. We did not go in this time, as I had a good look at it on my November 2025 hike through here. 

Here we are in the little shop at the Kägi Factory. They mostly make various flavours of chocolate-covered wafers. But my favourites, the chocolate Toggenburg butter cookies, which I was looking forward to procure, apparently they are not made anymore. This happens quite a lot to me, when I find something I really like. From here we caught the 3:15 bus for the < 2-hour trip home. 

The pink line is the walk we did this day from the Lichtensteig train station to the Kägi shop. In November 2025 (blue line), I walked through this town on an 8-km walk from Dietfurt to Wattwil. 

Location of Wattwil and Lichtensteig within Switzerland. 

By 4:15 p.m. my train is heading up to Biberbrugg from Lake Zurich. The late afternoon has turned out to be pretty nice!