Panorama Loop Trail in the Motor-Vehicle-Free Resort town of Braunwald

(This post published on November 2, 2024)

Saturday November 7, 2015 -- Our fantastic weather is still going strong... and we are taking advantage of it, with five hikes in just one week! It is a bit of a problem to find good hikes to do at higher elevations because all the cable cars are usually undergoing revision starting mid-October, in preparation for the ski season. So on this Saturday we were lucky to find that they were running the cable cars in Braunwald this weekend as an exception because of the great weather. We can easily reach the motor-vehicle-free vacation town by funicular, and from there took a cable car up to our starting point called Grotzenbühl, to walk the 9-km long Panorama Loop Trail (Although it was so nice that we just continued right back down to the funicular station in Braunwald, making it a 11-km walk). It still required a good uphill climb to the first lookout point, but well worth it! It is awesome that we can do a high-alpine style tour at this time of year. And in shorts and T-shirt to boot!

(It has been such a long and warm Indian Summer, that the ski resorts are starting to get nervous about the start of the skiing season. They are not even able to MAKE snow, because the weather is too warm!)

The dominant mountain here is called Ortstock. We had to walk 15 minutes to the cable-car station, which would take us to the start of our hike at Grotzenbühl. Right now it's 10:15 in the morning.

It's nice that the cows can still be outside on these mountain pastures this late in the season!

The cable car is running as an exception on this beautiful November weekend!

We are so happy that we can get up higher in the mountains with a cable-car.! Usually they end their runs middle to end of October, and get their revisions in November, preparing for the skiing season. We started here at 10:30 a.m. 

As we head uphill on the northern section of the Panorama Trail, we first have a long stretch on a wide dirt road through the forest. Then we get the first look into the Linth Valley below, and the lovely Lake Oberblegisee

It's so warm now that I had to put on my shorts!

Mild November weather that we can hike in shorts!

The air was also so fabulously clear that we could see quite far into the Glarus Alps

Now we are walking along the upper portion of the High Trail. What a view!

This crest is called the Seeblengrat

A view to the south up the Linth Valley from the Seeblengrat ridge. 

These high trails are the best kind for walking. Nice, dry, small paths and fairly level. 

This section of the trail is even through a tunnel. There is fancy artwork on the "ceiling"!

At this point is the summit station of the other cable-way called Gumen, and there is also a restaurant here. This view is into the mountains to the East, the UNESCO Sardona Tectonic Arena, and the main peak that we see here is called the Hausstock, which is at the south end of the Sernf Valley (Elm). There were many other people out enjoying the sunshine on this lovely day!

Continuing along the Panorama High Trail. 

Even the paragliders are out enjoying this beautiful weather!

We found a great spot for our picnic lunch at 1:15 p.m., away from the crowds in Gumen. 

Silver thistles are always a sure sign of late autumn. 

A look above us at the fantastic cliffs as we now head down the mountain. The high trail passes along the base of those cliffs. 

At 13:45 we were at the mountain hostel called Ortstockhaus. From here it's 30 minutes back to the cable-car station at Grotzenbühl, and a little over an hour back to the funicular station at Braunwald. Since it was such a nice day, we decided to walk back to the funicular station. 

A lovely little upper moor lake. 

Instead of taking the cable-car back down from Grotzenbühl, we walked all the way back to Braunwald to catch the Funicular. (No motor vehicles allowed).

Here we are back at the funicular station for the 4 p.m. ride back down into the Linth Valley. 

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. 

From the funicular station to the cable-way we had to walk 15 minutes (just under 1 km), so altogether this was about an 11½-km hike, and almost four hours of walking! 

The "Joke Trail" from Heiden to Walzenhausen in Canton Appenzell

 (This post created on April 24, 2025)

Thursday November 5, 2015 -- WOW we are having the best weather here! A few record-breaking days, although I read that this is not totally unusual for Switzerland at this time of year. (Combination of mountains and special winds).

Taking advantage of this warm weather means four excursions this past week. Thursday's excursion with my good friend Renate was a bit more low-key, in the lower hills at the far NE corner of Switzerland near the Austrian border. We walked about 8 km along a popular trail called the "Joke Trail" (Witzweg) from Heiden to Walzenhausen in Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden.

The jokes set on plaques along the way were written in local Appenzell dialekt, passed along by some old Swiss native. Not side-splitting funny, but good for a laugh or two! (You have to read the words phoenetically, and also understand some Swiss-German.... luckily the German version was written underneath!)

There was low cloud (fog) on the lake, so we didn't see much of the Bodensee (Lake Constance), but had a very pleasant walk together in the late Autumn sunshine. 

Local Trail no.977 in eastern Switzerland near the border with Austria is a themed trail called "Witzweg", or "Joke Trail". Starting in Heiden at 10:50, we got to Walzenhausen at about 2:30 p.m. There is a funicular line to Rheineck, but it was being renovated at the time, so we had to take a bus down to the Rheineck train station. 

At 10:50 we started in Heiden higher on the hillside south of Lake Constance. The time to walk to Walzenhausen is about two hours. 

There were so many pretty Appenzell-Style houses to admire along the way, some in the shadow of lower gullies. 

So nice that the cows can still be out in the pastures at this time of year!

View to the west over the Appenzell countryside

Another beautiful property

This is a restaurant called "Restaurant Harmonie"

What a lovely farm! From here we should have a view of Lake Constance, but there is a layer of fog hanging over the lake. 

Some of the trees still have their fall-coloured leaves!

The sign reminds us that we are walking along the "Witzweg" ("Joke Trail") and there are several such panels along the way with jokes written in the local Appenzell dialect. 

The joke here translates as: "An Appenzell man enters a shop in St.Gallen and asks to purchase a pair of underwear. The sales lady asks "how long?", and he answers: "What? Do you also rent them out?" " 

Enjoying some time on a bench above the town of Walzenhausen. (Down below is the city of Rheineck. My friend Renate doesn't like having her photo taken, so this is our "Selfie" for the day!

View toward the mountains in Austria, as we are very near the border here. 

Heading into the little village of Walzenhausen now, to the bus stop. This is the end of the "Joke Trail". 

A final joke: " The judge says to the accused: You can decide now what you would prefer, eight days in jail or 200 Francs. The accused answers: Well, if it makes no difference to you, I'll take the 200 Francs!"

This is what our walk looks like on Google Satellite Maps. 

By bus we returned to the train station in Rheineck. As we had a few minutes, we looked at a few of the nice buildings near the train station. This building is the fire house. 

Some very nice half-timbered houses here. The late afternoon sunshine (it is now 3:10 p.m.) provides some very nice lighting. 

The church in Rheineck (we did not go in). 

Location of Walzenhausen within Switzerland, near the Austrian border. 

Warm November Day on the Wild Hay Trail above Lake Uri

(This post created on June 26, 2025)

Wednesday November 4, 2015 -- It's unseasonably warm here which is great for late fall hiking so we are taking full advantage. We took a cable car up a nearby mountain and walked to the Alpe Selez mountain restaurant for our favourite lunch of pork steak and Alp-style macaroni and cheese. THE BEST! But then we discovered that the cable car(s) we wanted to return down on (different location) were closed for revision (very common here in November!). So we decided on a route called "The Wild Hay Trail" which was not originally in our plan, and to top it off we hiked back down the steep mountain, a total of almost 1600 meters descent, which is really hard on the legs! Altogether we walked for 5 hours and about 13 km. It's always getting a bit longer!

A look down into the junction of the Reuss Valley and Schächen Valleys, as we head up the mountain on the Bürglen-Biel cable-car. 

View out of the little cable-car as it heads up the mountain. 

We got up to the starting point of our hike (Bürglen/Biel) at just after 10 a.m. Our ultimate plan was to walk 2½ hours to the Eggbergen cable-car (summit station), stopping for lunch along the way. Later we found out that the cable-car is closed for revision! So we changed plans and headed to Ober Axen, a much longer hike!

Start of what turned out to be a 16-km hike... view up the Schächen Valley. The distinctive mountain there is called Mt. Schärhorn. 

This was a really long hike, 13 km and five hours of walking, and a total descent of nearly 1600 meters!

After about 45 minutes of walking westward along a wide and level trail, we get a view into the Reuss Valley and the town of Schattdorf.

Up ahead in the middle is the Restaurant we are heading to, it's called Alpe Selez and the owners live there and cook for hikers.

Alpe Selez, mountain restaurant. We got here at just about 11:30, a good time for a nice lunch on a sunny outdoor patio in early November!

Our favourite: Pork Steak and Alp-Style Macaroni and Cheese.

View south toward the Schächen Valley from our table on the patio!

After lunch (we spent an hour at the restaurant) the hike keeps going... our original plan was a small group of homes called Eggbergen, but the cable car there was in revision. So we just kept walking! (This view is behind us to the restaurant). 

When we got up to the crest where one could descend on the west side, we headed to Ober Axen (instead of Eggberge), another almost three hours from here! Good thing it was still early enough in the day (1 p.m.)

There is a little lake up here near the crest. It is called Fleschsee.

Looking back to where we had walked earlier before continuing down the mountain on the west side. Really good view of Mt. Schärhorn. 

On this side of the hillside we could expect plenty of afternoon sun. 

Ahead is the Wild Hay Trail, which runs across the cliff face where the grass is brown/yellow. This is the Wild Hay and it gets harvested! At the arrow is a farm called Franzen, and that is where the descent starts to Ober Axen, on the other side. 

When we got down to the Wild Hay Trail, we saw this sign that reads that the trail is actually "closed" for the winter because the handholds on the steeper sections have been removed. But we spoke to people who lived in a small cabin near this spot, and they told us that the trail is no issue for experienced hikers, if we were not afraid of heights. So we continued on the trail, and had no problems at all with it. 

Wild Hay Trail, near Flüelen, Switzerland. These steep slopes of wild hay actually get harvested.

The trees on this hillside look unusual to us, as not many forests have this kind of tree, which I believe is a Scotch Pine. 

Far to the south we get a look at that sunny mountain "terrace" called Eggbergen, where we were originally planning to catch the cable-car down to Flüelen, but it was currently not running due to revision. 

The red line shows where we descended from the Fleschsee lake via that large meadow to follow the Wild Hay trail along the flank of Mt.Rophäien. 

Here at the Franzen farm (there was no one here at this time of year) is the highest point along the "Wild Hay Trail" and from here we started the 450-meter descent to the OberAxen plateau. 

Looking down on Lake Uri and the high plateau called Ober Axen. That's our next goal, about an hour of downhill walking. (450 meters descent). Nice late afternoon sunshine over the Uri Alps!

Once we got to Ober Axen, we were met by this cutie!

From Ober Axen we glimpse the town of Flüelen on Lake Lucerne. That's the last leg of the trip. We could have taken a cable car down from here, but we decided to walk the additional 50 minutes (and another 570 meters descent, which in retrospect, was a bit much after already having done over 900 meters of descent from the little lake!)

Once we got to the bottom at 4:45 p.m., I wanted a photo of me in the cute little Ober Axen cable car, even though we didn't actually ride it! (There was a bus stop here so we could take a bus to the train station in Flüelen). 

What our very long hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps!