Fürenalp Panorama Trail in the Engelberg Valley

Wednesday August 19, 2026 -- Finally some rain, but all days "iffy" this week (some with more, some with less rain) except the Wednesday, which was an absolutely stunning and totally cloudless day. 

Even though I had just recently been to Engelberg to hike down from the Joch Pass (photos HERE), we decided to go back on this Wednesday as we had invited a neighbour to join us, and she didn't yet know the Fürenalp loop hike at the very back of the valley, which we have done before (June 2023), and which we knew would be a good choice for us to do together (and not very far to travel to). 

A bus takes you to the small Fürenalp cable-car which only carries eight people at a time and is very popular, so we started quite early, and were able to immediately board at 8:25 and were on our way! The total almost three-hour hike (which took us about five hours with lots of stops for photos) included a detour to a small pond with views toward Engelberg, then a lovely high trail to the waterfalls at the back of the valley (from there you can cross the Surenen Pass along the very popular Via Alpina Trail), from where we then we headed back to the cable-car station along the valley trail, where there was a bit more shade. All along the hike (either behind or in front of us) we had stunning views of Mt.Titlis, from the less-recognized east side. 

We totally enjoyed this hike, and always had a bit of a cool breeze so it never got unbearably hot. 

Starting early again from home at 6:15 a.m., we reached Engelberg at about 8 a.m. and had to wait 20 minutes for the shuttle bus to the back of the valley, to the Fürenalp cable-car station. This is near the train station in Engelberg. 

The view to the west as our bus heads eastward. A few days earlier I had walked down to Engelberg from the Joch Pass, which is further upper left from this photo.

At 8:24 we were already boarding the little cable-car to Fürenalp (it carries 8 people at a time, this time there were 7 of us). We were possibly the first people to be transported up at this time!

View to the beautiful mountains to the south as our cable-car heads up to the Fürenalp summit station. Later we would be walking along the trail we can see below. 

The sun has now reached the town of Engelberg, but here below us the valley bottom is still in shadow!

The other cable-car passes us now headed down....

Just before the summit station we catch sight of a little pond below the Hundschuft look-out point, both of which we are going to detour to before heading out on the actual planned hike.  

The restaurant is being prepared for a possible influx of visitors on this perfect day, but it looks like we are some of the very first up here!

First a detour to the Hundschuft look-out point, with a view to the little pond where we are headed to next, and a fantastic view into the Engelberg Valley and the surrounding mountains. 

This is the peak of Mount Titlis as seen from the east. From this side you cannot see the tower and the glacier on the Klein Titlis side. 

The glacier on this side of Mt.Titlis is called the "Firnalpeli Gletscher". 

In October 2021, a bear cave was discovered nearby on the Fürenalp, with a few bear bones, and it is estimated there were bears living here several thousand years ago. The "Bear's Nest" up at the little look-out point gives some insight into the lives of the bears. "Urs" = "Bear", so I needed a photo of him with the bears!

Heading back from the look-out point, we see the Fürenalp restaurant and cable-car station. We are now going to take a second detour, down the little path on the left toward the little pond that we saw from the cable-car ride. 

There goes another run of the Fürenalp cable-car, with another view of the town of Engelberg below. 

The pond was cute, but not big. Nevertheless, one could sit and relax here, and enjoy the fantastic views. We actually spent quite a few minutes up here, as our friend had discovered there were life-forms in the pond, which turned out to be newts (I was not able to photgraph them properly). 

Completing the little loop-trail now back to the Fürenalp restaurant, from where we then start on the actual hike for the day. Fun fact: Fürenalp is in Canton Obwalden (as is Engelberg), but a large piece of the mountainside below us here belongs to Canton Uri, the border of which we cross about 20 minutes along the Panorama Trail). 

This view was behind us on the first half of the hike, but I turned around a lot to photograph it. It is simply stunningly majestic. 

At 9:15 we are now ready to get on with our panorama hike. To the waterfalls is about an hour, and then passing two restaurants along the way, it should be 2½ hours to return to the bus at the Fürenalp cable-car base station. We took a leisurely 4½ hours!!!! 

We were some of the first to ride the cable-car to Fürenalp, which we reached at 8:35. First we did the little loop walk to the Bear's Nest and little pond, then, starting at 9:15, we headed out toward the waterfalls, and then walked along the valley bottom back out to the bus stop, which we reached just before 2 p.m. 

Heading eastward on the panorama trail. 

Turning around a lot for the the view behind us!

Above us the cows own the mountainside!

Across the valley to the east is a Swiss Alpine Hostel (Spannorthütte) perched high on the steep slopes of the Spannort peaks, just getting the first rays of sunshine on this very shady flank. This is a popular overnight spot for hikers doing a multi-day hike along the Swiss Via Alpina Trail, after they cross the Surenen Pass. But it's not a walk-in-the-park, as still requires a 90-minute hike 500 meters straight up the mountainside at the end!

Down below is a little hamlet called Usseräbnet, with a little garden restaurant and a cable-car down to the valley bottom. On one of our hikes here (having crossed the Surenen Pass), we took that cable-car down to continue at the valley bottom. (Photos HERE). Right about here we have crossed the canton border from Obwalden to Uri. From here to the falls and back along the valley, all belongs to Canton Uri. 

The mountains to the south, high and steep, with several glaciers and many waterfalls. 

Always a pleasure to fill up our water bottles at the cow troughs!

The peak at the back is called the Blackenstock, and right below it is the Surenen Pass, a popular crossing on the Via Alpina Trail. (We crossed it in August 2017)

The geraniums up here at Alp Hohbiel are doing better than the ones on my balcony!

This bridge seemed rather unnecessary. Maybe the road gets flooded sometimes? In any case, a placard next to the bridge does inform us that the stream is called Hohbielbach, which comes down from a waterfall on the left, and that you can cross this bridge to prevent getting wet feet. But no extra water right now!

Another look down the valley to the mountain flanks where the Spannort Hostel is perched somewhere, which I can't find anymore on this photo!

Now all of a sudden a herd of cows approaches us along the hiking trail. 

Usually, when we pass cows or they pass us, they observe Urs quite closely, and I try to take a photo of this every time! But on this day they were not at all interested in us. They had a goal in mind, and they were all headed that way, no time for distractions!

And here is our friend braving her way past the cows, who are totally ignoring her as well. (She is from England, and says the cows there are quite aggressive! Here they are probably used to all the hikers in the mountains). 

Now we've reached the waterfall called Stäuber (at 10:40, i.e. 90 minutes after starting!) and are headed down to the valley bottom. From here an alternative trail heads further up and over the pass. 

The Stäuber Falls at the back of the Engelberg Valley (here it is called the "Nieder Surenen"). The river that comes down from the Surenen Pass is called the Stierenbach, and continues as such to the Canton Border at the Alpenrösli restaurant, and from there it is known as the Engelberger Aa River, which then ultimately flows into Lake Lucerne. 

Descending into the valley bottom to return in the direction of the Cable-car station. 

This cow looks like she fell asleep on her feet and forgot that she was in the middle of a mouthful of grass!

From the site of the waterfall we are now following the official national Trail no.1: "Via Alpina", a pretty popular trail. We encountered many people here along the way. We are now looking for a suitable place in the shade to have our picnic lunch, as it is 11:15 and we are hungry!

What is special about this photo? This is where we had our lunch break, the only shady spot we could find near the river, and I didn't think to take a group photo at all! And only a snapshot as we were leaving at 11:50.

Down below is the first of two mountain restaurants along the way. This one is called "Berggasthaus Stäfel" ("Gasthaus" usually means you can overnight there as well) and is a rather larger site, where they also make and sell their own cheese. Up ahead we again have Mt.Titlis in our sights. 

Just past here also is the little cable-car from the Usseräbnet farm which we passed earlier along the upper trail. Here is one of the little cable cars just heading down from there!

That little building (cellar, storage??) is totally protected from possible avalanches!

This is the farm at Stäfeli Alp. This is also a cheese dairy with a cheese shop. We did not stop here, whether for cheese nor for refreshments. 

The patio terrace at Gasthaus Stäfelialp. This seems to be very popular with mountain bikers!

It's now 12:05, and we have been on the trail for three hours now (lots of stops to chat and take photos!!!). We still have over an hour to walk to the bus, plus we now have to find a nice place in the shade to stop for our picnic lunch. This is part of National Trail no.1: Via Alpina. 

A quick detour to have a look at the little cable-car which connects the valley bottom to Aebnet Alp. The little cable car carries maximum four people, but can apparently also attach three bikes! We rode this cable-car on our August 2017 hike. (See specifically this PHOTO!)

Continuing along the higher trail at the valley bottom, with always the great views. There is a road below where most of the other hikers were walking, which we found unusual, as foot-paths are so much nicer (although this one took longer to cover, as there was a rough section through a forest). 

Here at the restaurant called Alpenrösli (somewhat hidden in the trees so no photo), you cross the river at the very border between Canton Uri—which is what we are looking at upriver—and Canton Obwalden, downriver. The river now also changes names from Stierenbach to Engelberger Aa, as we now continue on the left side of the river in Canton Obwalden. 

Still looking at the mountains in Canton Uri (Spannort Range), we notice that there are very many waterfalls here. 

We then had a long section through the forest, which was comfortably cool!

A look to the mountains in the south. All these rocks were at some time brought down by flooding of the mountain streams!

A look back up the valley we had just walked down.... 

This time the cows are watching us!

More views behind us...

.... and the trail ahead of us. 

Up above we observe the Fürenalp cable-car on its way down to the station. This is the cable-car we took on the way up at the start of this excursion!

We got back to the Fürenalp cable-car station at about 2 p.m. The next bus (hourly) arrives at about 2:20 p.m., so we had to wait around here for a bit, buy some refreshments, and find a bench in the shade. 

Because this day is so beautiful, the farmers are busy cutting, drying and collecting another harvest of hay. Urs spoke with one of the farmers who said this valley had received enough rain throughout the summer to prevent the drought that many other places in Switzerland experienced. They had already harvested enough grass for the winter hay reserves, and now they are cutting for silage. 

14:22 bus for the 12-minute ride back to Engelberg. (Unfortunately, the next train out, also hourly, wasn't till 3 p.m., so we still had about 30 minutes to wait in Engelberg).  

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. The Canton Borders are included to show the interesting way there is a small piece of Canton Uri on the mountainside below Fürenalp. 

On the way back to Engelberg, other farmers are busy on their fields, including some mowing by hand!

This side valley in Engelberg is known as "End der Welt", or "End of the World". We have done two winter hikes in this valley, and once we started in Fürenalp walking in this direction on the high trail (on the right side of the photo), descending into the back of the valley. (Those photos HERE). 

More nice views from the bus window as we enter into Engelberg. 

Back near the train station, where we now have a 30-minute layover till the 3 p.m. train back to Luzern. 

While waiting for the train, I took a little walk to the southern side of Engelberg where I could get a really nice photo of the back of the valley, i.e. the peaks of the Spannort mountains below which we had walked this day. 

And with a zoomed view I can even make out the building at Fürenalp, i.e. the summit station of the cable-car, where we started our hike!

Our train pulls in to the station at 14:53, but leaves again only at 15:02 for the 90-minute trip home. For now there is only an hourly train from Luzern to Engelberg, but with current construction on the railway line, they anticipate to offer half-hourly services soon! 

All the hikes we have done in this region of the Engelberg Valley, including three hikes starting at Fürenalp, crossing the Surenen Pass, descending from the Joch Pass, the Walenpfad trail to Lake Bannalpsee, and walking down the Engelberg Aa Gorge twice.