Seebodenalp to Küssnacht on the Northwest Side of Mt.Rigi

Wednesday June 17, 2026 -- Urs had to work all week so no Wednesday hike together, but I still wanted to get out for a little walk. The day started out cloudy with forecast of clearing for later, so I waited till it looked like it was all going to be lovely, and headed off on the spur of the moment.

Very close to my house is the cable-car from Küssnacht up to Seebodenalp, a large alpine plateau on the north side of Mount Rigi. In just a few minutes I had boarded the cable-car, and then, from the top, walked back down, just a 90-minute walk. (For a long time I had wanted to hike UP to Seebodenalp, but it's over 500 meters of altitude gain, and at the moment just too hot to do this hike).

The trail I took is part of Regional Trail no.63: "Schwyzer Höhenweg", a section that I had not walked yet. On the way down I discovered a fabulous rope park run by the Alpenhof Farm (a popular restaurant with loads of things for children to do), and after that made my way to the ruins of the Gesslerburg (Gessler Fortress) where I hadn't been since 2014. The sky became overcast and the air turned muggy, so I was glad to have some shade at the old mill pond for a break, and after that did some shopping and headed back home. An easy outing and not a lot of time spent on trains and buses!

Just a couple of minutes' walk from my house in Küssnacht is the cable-car station to Seebodenalp, a high plateau on the north side of Mt. Rigi. 

View of the Küssnacht arm of Lake Luzern, and Mt.Rigi in the background. On days with clear visibility, you can even see the Bernese Alps at the far back. 

Down below is the farm called Alpenhof, very popular with families as there are loads of activities for children (trampolines, slides, etc.) and a large outdoor terrace as well as an indoor restaurant. In the back is the town of Küssnacht, which lies at the north end of the Küssnacht arm of Lake Lucerne. 

More views as the cable-car heads further up. 

Passing over a section of forest where I later walked through, then passed via the Alpenhof farm and to the Gesslerburg ruins on the right. At the arrow is a very large rope park which I discovered on my way down. 

A look across the Seebodenalp plateau to the northwest flank of Mt.Rigi, with the communication tower visible at Rigi Kulm. The last time we took the Seebodenalp cable car to start on a hike here was in June 2022, when we walked around the north side of the mountain to Arth on Lake Zug.

There seems to be a very interesting marble run up here, entertainment for the kids. Marble runs have become somewhat of a popular feature in many mountain regions. 

There is also a chapel near the cable-car station, and this is the first time I have had a look inside. At 10:45 I was ready to start my walk down to the town of Küssnacht, a 90-minute walk from here. 

It was a 90-minute and 615-meter descent to Küssnacht from Seebodenalp, via the ruins of Gesslerburg fortress. I did a bit of shopping then caught the bus to the main square, from where I then walked via the lakeshore trail back home.

Good thing that a nice part of the descent was through the forest, as we are currently having a heat wave, so the shade is welcome!

A long series of steps takes you down through the forest. 

First glimpse now again of the Küssnacht arm of Lake Luzern. It is already much hazier than when I came up with the cable car, and the air is starting to feel muggy. 

With my luck, the farmers just started with their leaf (or grass) blowers as I reached them here on the trail! (This happens a lot to me). 

With this hot weather, it is a perfect time for the farmers to cut the grass on the mountains slopes and leave it to dry into hay. 

Perfect weather for drying the grass. This machine is tumbling the grass so it dries on the other side. 

To the northeast I get a glimpse of Lake Zug. 

As much of the mountain slopes as possible is harvested for hay. 

From here the trail heads back into a nice cool forested section. 

After another cool section through the forest, I came upon this structure. It seems to be the entrance to a very intricate rope park. 

A map shows the extent of the rope park / enclosure with all the activities that can be done here. 

I walked along the fence trying to get a peek into the enclosure, and got a couple of glimpses of ladders, platforms and ropes. It look like fun, but is quite expensive to do. (45 Fr. for adults, 32 Fr. for children). 

Near the Rope Park is a nice view bench, and I took a little break here.... to try to take a self-time photo with this background!

My attempts at self-time photos usually show me running to or from the camera!

Enjoying the view and watching the Seebodenalp cable-car head up the mountain again. 

Beautiful view, although it could have been better! This is Mt.Pilatus, the main mountain of the city of Luzern, which is around the promontory on the right. 

Barely visible at the back are the Bernese Alps, which you can see really well on a clear day. 

Continuing on down now, the trail passes through the grounds of the Alpenhof Farm, which you see from the cable-car. 

One of the Rope Park activities starts and/or ends here with a climbing wall. There are all kinds of activities here for children, including trampolines and small animals. It is a very popular place for families. We have also been here to eat several times. Most recently we stopped here for refreshments on a hike we did down to Küssnacht from all the way up at Rigi Staffel, in July 2025. 

Lovely large trees. 

The next part of the trail passes via the ruins of the Gessler Fortress (Gesslerburg), i.e. the trail goes around the east side of this hill, but I took a shortcut thinking I could get there faster. But I had to go down and up a couple of steep slopes navigating stinging nettles to get there, so probably not faster. 

View down to the town of Küssnacht from the hill across from the ruins. 

Information about the fortress. Apparently not a lot is known about its grounding, but it seems it was already in existence in the 9th Century. As is often the case, after the building fell into disrepair over the centuries, the stones from the building were carted away by locals to use in other buildings, such as the parish church (in the 18th Century). The fortress became famous in Schiller's story of William Tell in the early 16th Century, where the nemesis Gessler alledgedly lived or used it as a dungeon. 

The last time I was here was in 2014 on a hike we did from Greppen to Immensee on a trail called the "Rigi Lehnenweg" 

You can walk along the walls on a fenced-in section and get views of the various walls and sections of the old ruins. 

Close-up view of the church in Küssnacht from the walls of the Gesslerburg ruins. 

Coming down off the hill where the ruins are, you come across the old mill. i.e. this is called the "Knochenstampfi", i.e. "Bone crusher", built in 1877 and where bones were ground into meal, which was a highly sought-after fertilizer product. The built-in saw and pounding-blocks were operated via water brought in through the channel. 

A lovely and cool place for a break. There was a family grill-spot here with wood and benches, where I sat for a while. 

Continuing on into the outskirts of town, I passed this very nicely laid-out garden!

Such pretty flowers!

Past this old building is the main road through town, where I took a detour to buy some groceries. 

These are all the hikes we have done around Mount Rigi and Küssnacht. The descent I did this day was parallel to the cable-car line from Seebodenalp to Küssnacht, the pink line at the arrow. 

The pretty road from the main traffic circle down to the lakeshore in Küssnacht. 

Along this short road from the main traffic circle are several restaurants, bakeries, outside sitting areas, the large church, a museum... the only drawback is that cars can drive down here to park at the large lot next to the lake access. 

A look at the city hall building from in front of the church. 

City hall building. It's all so pretty with large gardens, etc. 

Winter Walk on the Rigi Panorama Trail from Scheidegg to Kaltbad

Tuesday January 13, 2026 -- This day's walk left me with mixed feelings... Urs usually has Wednesdays off but this week he had to switch. And his wish for the day's outing was to have lunch in a favourite restaurant on Mt. Rigi called Berggasthaus Unterstetten, located at the half-way point of the Rigi Panorama Trail between Rigi Scheidegg and Rigi Kaltbad. We have had many opportunities on nice winter days to do this walk, but the restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. So this was an opportunity to do a winter walk on a prepared panorama trail just an hour's travel from home, AND have a well-priced lunch along the way.

Unfortunately though, the weather forecast was wrong again, and we didn't have the sunshine we expected, although the views were definitely very clear this day. And because of the warming weather in the past couple of days (and cold nights), the surface of the prepared walking (and cross-country skiing) trail was practically pure ice, which made the first part of the walk, which included a long down-hill section where you could practically skate on your boots (microspikes would have been helpful!) very difficult. The sun did come out for a short period, but that was while we were sitting in the restaurant, and then again at the very end of the hike. (One positive note: We were early in the restaurant at 11:30 with only three other couples there, and no one doing a lot of noisy talking.... compared to the December 2017 walk when the large room was jam-packed full!)

In all this is a 7-km walk, normally relatively easy, and much nicer when the sun shines and after a recent snow when all the trees are still blanketed. Our best winter hike here was on January 19, 2019.

At 9:20 a.m. I was waiting at the train station in Küssnacht. There is fog here, but the summit of Mt.Rigi to the south is fog-free. 

View of the Mythen mountains as my train heads to Arth Goldau. It's not looking very promising, as far as view and sunshine goes. 

This is where the trains head up to Rigi Kulm from the Arth-Goldau station. 

We will be riding the red train at 9:55 (I got here before Urs did, so I waited for him in the train). We are only traveling for two stations to the cable-car station at Kräbel. 

I'm the first in the train! This is a very old wagon, and the only train leaving at this time, as there were not very many passengers on this day.

We were the first out of the train into the Rigi Scheidegg cable-car, and were on our way up the mountain quite quickly. 

From our hiking website "Switzerland Mobility", this is the description of the Rigi Panorama trail that we are walking (which we have done many times). The trail follows the route of the former railway line here. 

We started at Rigi Scheidegg at 10:20, and got to the Unterstetten restaurant at 11:30. Continuing on at 12:40, we then got to Rigi Kaltbad at 13:45. So altogether, the 7½-kilometer walk took about 2 hours 15 minutes to walk, even with the very slippery first section.  

This is a combination of prepared cross-country and walking trail, but on this day the surface was smooth and frozen and difficult to walk. We were basically the only people on this trail at this time!

There are two trails here, we took the upper trail. The mountains of the Bernese Oberland look very close this day. 

A close-up view of the north face of Mt. Eiger, and Mt. Mönch on the left. These are the very popular peaks of the Jungfrau Region in the Bernese Oberland 

First view of Mount Pilatus and Lake Lucerne, plus the summit of Mt. Bürgenstock in the center. 

Very difficult on this downhill section as the surface was so slippery, you basically had to "skate" down and had no way to brake.... Side note: This stretch was much prettier on the December 2017 walk along this trail. (Photo HERE).  

Far to the northeast we can even see Mt.Säntis! (Zoomed view) 

There is a tunnel up here which was blasted for the Rigi-Scheidegg railway in 1874/75

To the east are the Mythen mountains. 

We were surprised to see two avid cross-country skiers braving the icy surface of the trail!

To the north is the summit of Mount Rigi, called Rigi Kulm. 

Huge masses of ice on the cliffs along the way. We are now walking along the former railway line. 

Up ahead is the original railway viaduct. Just to the left is the path down to the restaurant. The bridge is 50 meters long. 

Information about the Rigi-Scheidegg Railway: In 1872, permission was given to build the panorama railway from Rigi Kaltbad to Scheidegg. A lot of work was required to blast a tunnel, build up dikes, and the 50-meter iron bridge. By 1875 the entire stretch was completed, and at the time was the highest adhesion railway in Europe, and the second narrow-gauge railway in Switzerland. 

We could have taken the side trail down to the restaurant, but chose to walk over the 50-meter railway bridge first. 

View of Lake Lucerne and Mount Pilatus from the railway bridge. 

At 11:30 we made it to the Berggasthaus Unterstetten, a lovely restaurant with homemade meals and reasonable prices, plus the most fantastic views. It is unfortunately closed on Wednesdays, when we have the day off for hiking. That's why we did this walk today, as it was Tuesday. 

There is a lovely view terrace at the Unterstetten restaurant. 

This is the view from the Unterstetten terrace, of the west end of Lake Lucerne. 

Close-up view of Mount Pilatus.

View from our table inside the restaurant. We had about 30 minutes of sunshine while we were in the restaurant!

For most of our meal there were only four couples in the restaurant, so nice and peaceful. By noon more people started coming. Prices here are very reasonable, only 18 SFr. for a large plate of fries and two breaded pork Schnitzel. Urs also had an icecream sundae for dessert!

Some hardy hikers chose to have refreshments on the outside terrace!

Heading off again at 12:45, passing along the base of the former railway viaduct. 

The pink trail markers indicate the various prepared winter walking trails up here. To Rigi Kaltbad we still have over an hour to walk, so we aimed for the 14:18 train down. (as it is now 12:45). Walking in the opposite direction from here to Rigi Scheidegg takes longer (1:35) as it is uphill. 

This former railway wagon has been converted into a vacation home! From here on the trail was better to walk, less slippery. 

Another look to the east to the summit of Mt. Mythen and the Schwyzer Alps. 

More interesting information: Historical records show that farmers had already been using the mountain for grazing in the 12th Century. The mountain pastures were in high demand and there were border skirmishes in the 14th and 15th Centuries. In 1650 there were 2400 Swiss Brown cattle in the mountain pastures over the summer. By 1830 there were over 3000 cattle up here in the summer. (By 2010 there were fewer, about 2400, but also sheep and goats). 

We knew we had to wait quite a while for the 14:18 train down from Rigi Kaltbad to Vitznau on the lake, so we took a break on this view bench in the sunshine for about 10 minutes. 

View from our view bench of Mt. Bürgenstock as we are now directly north of it. Further south are Mts. Buochserhorn and Stanserhorn. And far in the back are the Bernese Alps.  

And another view of Mt.Pilatus. 

We have now reached the resort of Rigi Kaltbad, with many vacation homes and even a small church. Note that we now have sunshine at the end of our hike!

On the west side of the Vitznau railway station at Rigi Kaltbad (and on the way to the look-out point at Rigi Känzeli) is this narrow passage between two large boulders, and behind that is hidden a little church, called the St.Michael Felsenkapelle (Cliff Chapel). 

As we were still too early, we walked past the Kaltbad station to the hidden church called St.Michael Felsenkapelle, a building I had never known about even with the many times I have been up here! Although this building was built in 1779, the first chapel here was built in 1585.

Details of the little church, hidden behind a cleft in the cliffs. They named this location "Kaltbad" or "Cold bath" because the story goes that three nuns sought refuge behind this cleft and discovered a source of water which they claimed had healing properties. 

This is the mineral spa at Rigi Kaltbad, but the waters are warm, not cold! You can relax in the warm waters with this great view!

At 14:18 we took the cogwheel train back down the mountain to the town of Vitznau. Unfortunately we sat on the wrong side of the train and got no views at all. But I had had great views on a recent November 2025 hike when I took that same train UP the mountain (photos HERE). 

What this walk looks like on Google Satellite Maps, starting at Rigi Scheidegg and ending at Rigi Kaltbad, 7 km. 

This is where we had to change to the bus (in Vitznau) after reaching the base station of the Kaltbad-Vitznau cogwheel train station. From here the bus heads back to the train station in Küssnacht. 

As the bus heads along the lakeshore, we catch sight of one of the popular ships on the lake, and Mt. Pilatus as a backdrop. 

At the bus stop in the village of Weggis. The climate here is mild, and good for palm trees!

A look behind us toward the southwest along Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstättersee). On the left at the base of the mountain is the town of Vitznau, where we descended to. 

As the Rigi range is so close to where we live and easily accessible, we have had many opportunies for hiking here.