Aargauer Trail from Salhöhe to Wittnau, then Bad Säckingen in Germany

Wednesday July 17, 2024 -- After our two-day trip with five hours of walking each day, we took a break on Tuesday (rainy day). But on Wednesday we did want to go walking again, just not another 5-hour hike! The weather was best in the Central Plateau (toward late morning only), i.e. around the Jura Mountains and the Rhine River on the German border, so we figured we'd do a relatively short hike this time of only about 8 km, walking the final section which was still missing for completing the regional themed trail called "Aargauerweg", a 105-km trail which runs through the entire Canton of Aargau. 

We started at a pass called Salhöhe and walked northwards to Wittnau in the Frick Valley, a small town where we had started another section of this trail back in April of 2023 (those photos are HERE). As it turns out, a large part of the walk was on paved roads, and I wasn't unhappy that the sky became overcast. In retrospect, this might have been a walk better saved for fall or a nice winter day. In any case, since we weren't too far from the German border, the plan was to then take the train to the town of Stein on the Swiss side of the Rhine River, where we can cross the river into Germany, buy some things we needed from a drugstore there, eat some gelato, and return across the wooden covered bridge--at 203.7 meters the longest roofed wooden in Europe--back into Switzerland. This was the third time we were here, with photos of our previous trip HERE. 

Crossing the Aare River by bus from the town of Aarau, heading up into the hills north of the city. This is a power plant on the river.

An old restaurant on the north side of the river. 

Starting at the Salhöhe Pass in the Jura hills above Aarau at 10:45, this was going to be a short hike (less than 2½ hours) north to Wittnau along Trail no.42. Then we would take the bus and train to Stein-Säckingen, which is on the Swiss side of the Rhine River, and walk across the bridge to Bad-Säckingen, which is on the German side of the river.  Trail no.5 "Jura High Trail" runs east to west along the Jura Crest here. 

View to the northeast from the Jura Crest at Salhöhe Pass

We started at 10:45 at Salhöhe, and reached Wittnau at 13:40 for the bus to Frick. The pass is located along Route no.5: "Jura Crest Trail" and right on the border of Cantons Aargau and Solothurn. For a large part we walked along that canton border.

The obligatory cow photo. These ones had an interesting brown and white colouring. 

The pass road descending on our west to the town of Kienberg, Canton Solothurn. 

There was this unusual field of blue flowers in the middle of a clearing. 

A good place to stop for our picnic lunch at 11:30. We stayed here about 15 minutes. 

View of the field of blue flowers from our picnic spot. 

A lot of our walk was through bushes and forested areas, not bad on a hot day. 

A border stone marking the border of Canton Aargau on the east and Canton Solothurn on the west. 

The look-out point at Burg. We got here shortly after noon, with another 90 minutes left to walk to Wittnau. 

The view over the countryside to the north, in the direction of Germany. We ended up crossing that large upper plateau of farmland (in the red circle) before descending to Wittnau. 

Nice cool forest trail

There were also some lovely sections once again through very tall meadow grasses with loads of very pretty flowers. 

A single tree in the forest with this unusual "fruit". An Internet search later reveals this to be a Black Walnut, different than the regular walnuts. 

A long wide forest road through the Lammetholz forest before reaching the wide open plateau. 

A very good use of this roof area for solar panels! More and more farms are doing this. 

Final stretch before reaching the forest at the back right (descent to Wittnau), and we were very glad that the sun was hidden by clouds at this point, because it was VERY hot!

Everywhere we encounter damage in the forests due to storms. 

Final stretch down to Wittnau now, with a view of the hillside we ascended the last time we were here in April 2023. 

Wittnau, the end of our day's hike. 

Passing a pretty house as we head to the bus stop in Wittnau. 

We have now completed the entire themed trail called "Aargauerweg" or "Aargau Trail", which passes from Frick to Muri, a large part along the Aare and Reuss Rivers. (There is an exception from Wittnau to Frick as we started wrong at the time. But basically we've covered it all). 

After a 30-minute trip with bus to Frick and then by train to Stein-Säckingen railway station, we walked across the Fridolin's bridge over the Rhine River, which forms the border of Switzerland and Germany. On the German side we walked to the castle grounds in Bad-Säckingen, then to the drugstore to get some supplies, had another quick look inside the lavish Baroque Church of St.Fridolin, bought some gelato at a small shop we had been to twice before, and then returned to the Swiss side via the old wooden bridge, which is actually the longest covered bridge in Europe.  (Here are the photos of our most recent trip here in September 2019)

Crossing the Fridolin's bridge over the Rhine River, with view of the double-towers of the St.Fridolinsmünster in Bad Säckingen, and the tower called Diebsturm. You can also just see part of the wooden bridge here.

A statue of Fridolin of Säckingen on the Fridolin Bridge. Fridolin was a traveling monk with Irish background, active some time in the 6th Century, and having founded several churches in the Germanic region (he is also the patron saint of Canton Glarus). He founded the church here, which has its history documented from about the 7th Century. 

The wooden bridge across the Rhine River here is the longest covered bridge in Europe. The border between Switzerland and Germany runs right along the center of the river here. 

This is the little walk we did from Stein-Säckingen train station, across the Fridolin Bridge, through old town Bad Säckingen in Germany and back across the wooden covered bridge to catch the bus at the Novartis Pharma complex. 

Walking along the German side of the river, a nice view of the covered bridge. The original bridge was mentioned in annals of 1272, but was detroyed several times by fire and flood. This most recent rebuild is from 1799.

Entering the castle grounds at the very cool Diebsturm (Thief's Tower), was part of the renovated city wall in 1272. in 1600 it was integrated into the Schönau Castle complex. It was rebuilt into this neo-Gothic style in 1864. 

The Schönau Castle in Bad-Säckingen is actually a large villa built in 1600 on the site of a previously moated castle. It suffered a lot of damage in the 30-year war (1618 to 1648) and a town fire of 1678. It was renoved in 1908 and belongs to the city. 

Details of the castle grounds, a very pretty public park. 

This is called the "Fountain of Fools". We saw another one like this in Konstanz, Germany. 

The twin towers of the Fridolin Minster

The square in front of the very large Minster. We have been here before (September 2019), but wanted to have another quick look. As with many such churches, parts of previous buildings that had been burned or otherwise damaged have been found to have been integrated into this building, dating as far back at the 10th Century. 

Lavish Baroque interior. 

Lavish Baroque interior

Additional details of the Fridolinsmünster. 

VIDEO:

There was an organ practice going on in the church this day, very loud and very unharmonious. I felt I had to make a recording!

Main plan of the day, enjoy some Italian Gelato in Germany, in a small café we discovered on our first trip here. (In retrospect, this time we noticed another, larger Gelateria slightly further north in the old town, with many more flavour options. So this means we will have to visit yet again!)

View from the wooden covered bridge toward the Fridolin's Bridge which we crossed earlier. The Rhine River has a lot of water right now. 

(Notes from my last trip across this bridge: The original bridge here was mentioned in 1272 in the Annals of Colmar, was destroyed due to flooding in 1343. Rebuilt several times due to destruction by additional flooding and fire. Construction was paid for by tolls imposed to cross the bridge. 1799 was the most recent rebuild of the bridge. The bridge is 203.7m long.)

The customs office on the Swiss side, right at the entrance of the wooden bridge. 

Location of the Frick Valley and Bad-Säckingen in the northern part of Switzerland. 

A Section of the Aargauer Trail from Salhöhe to Aarau

Wednesday October 4, 2023 -- Not the best day to travel to the mountains as it as pretty overcast there, but we still wanted to do some walking, so we went to the Jura foothills North of the city of Aarau where there was sunshine, walked along the ridge from Salhöhe Pass to the lookout at Wasserflue, and then walked all the way down the mountain to the city of Aarau.

Since Canton Aargau (Argovia) consists of 35% of forest, most of our hike was through forest, with a few meadows and a nice view over the old town of Aarau. Unfortunately, there is a large military training grounds exactly in the path of our hike, and we had to endure machine gun practice, not the nicest for an impromptu afternoon walk. 

The old part of Aarau (on the Aar River) is very pretty, as many of the houses have intricately-painted roof gables. 

This hike would not make it into the annals of our favourite hikes, but we didn't want to travel far, and we picked this stretch because it is part of the 100-km-long themed trail called the "Aargauerweg" (or "Argovia Trail") of which we have now just about completed the entire stretch (in several sections). In retrospect, we should have waited for a clear day with good visibility, so that we would have had the best of the view from the Wasserflue, as we did back in May of 2017, when we did a similar walk. 

Riding through old town Aarau by bus on the way to Salhöhe Pass

Some features of the city of Aarau as seen from the bus

Crossing the Aar River looking west, this is the Eniwa Hydroelectric Plant. 

Passing through the city of Erlinsbach where we had to change to a different bus. Interesting fact: Half of this city is in Canton Aargau, the other half in Canton Solothurn! (This church is actually in the Solothurn side of Erlinsbach). 

We got to Salhöhe Pass at 12:15, where we started on our 3-hour hike. First stop is the look-out point at Wasserflue (one hour to walk) where we had our picnic lunch, and from there it was another 2¼ hours to walk down to the city of Aarau 

This is a section of Trail no.42: "Aargauerweg" which we had not yet done, so that was the reason for randomly choosing this trail today. Also, we started late, so needed something relatively close by (2 hours travel time). It still ended up a solid 3-hour and 11 km afternoon walk. 

The view over the Argovian landscape to the north of the Jura ridge. 

The walk to the Wasserflue look-out point was all through the woods

This trail is along the crest of the Jura foothills, and most of the trail was this layer of almost vertical raised rock. 

We got to the look-out point at 13:05, so 50 minutes after starting our walk at the Salhöhe Pass. A drawback of the overcast skies in the mountains is that we didn't see any of the Alps. (With good visibility, you can see the whole range of the snow-covered Alps from here. We did this same stretch in May of 2017 with the Föhn wind effect, where the mountains looked so close... those photos are HERE)

The view to the east and southeast, to what is probably the city of Küttigen

View to the north, to the Benkerjoch Pass

This is where we had our picnic lunch, a bit late in the day. 

Heading downhill now below the crest, a look at the Wasserflue communication tower. 

When we were not in the forest, we walked through agricultural landscapes

The forests of Canton Aargau

One of many nice forest trails

An opening in the forest, looking east

For a part of our descent we were accompanied by the sound of machine-gun practice, which was not very enjoyable. This is the military training-ground at Gehren. 

Military training grounds

Heading toward the Buechwald "Oak Reservation Forest", a unique and rare oak forest in canton Aargau. We walked through this forest for 40 minutes before reaching a look-out over the city of Aarau

I don't know what these are, but it was a very pretty field of purple flowers

We reached the "Alpenzeiger" look-out point at 3:40 p.m, with this view of old-town Aarau, the Aar River, and the bridge which we crossed into the city.

Zoomed view of the old town of Aarau, from the north side

Zoomed view of the old town of Aarau, from the north side

Heading down to river level. 

Another view of the old town shortly before reaching river level. 

Crossing the bridge over the Aar River. 

Before heading to the train station, which is on the south side of the old town, we wandered a few streets to admire the painted roof gables. 

Old town Aarau

Such pretty roof gables. There is a lot to admire.

These are also very interesting roof overhangs! Earlier, there used to be cranes in these windows, to lift heavy things into the apartments which you could not bring up the stairs. 

One of the city gates

Tower at the city gate

Watching the bus make its way through the narrow city gate, on the south side of the old town. 

This is what our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps

Location of Aarau and the Northeastern section of the Jura Foothills. (The Jura Mountains are mostly along the Swiss-French border). 

Description of the "Aargauerweg" (or Argovia Trail). The entire themed trail is about 100 km long. 

We have just about completed the entire "Aargauerweg" from Frick to Muri. We'll do the northern section from Salhöhe Pass to Wittnau (direction Frick) next Spring, hopefully. 

The view from the Wasserflue look-out point on a clear day. You can see the entire range of the Alps from here. When there is the Föhn-Wind effect, the mountains seem closer and larger. My photos from that day's hike are worth looking at HERE