Walking down the Beautiful Bavona Valley: Day 2 of Three-Day Trip to Ticino

(Post done on December 18, 2021)

Second Day of Three-Day trip to Ticino: Val Bavona

Monday May 16, 2016 -- Second day of our vacation in the Italian part of Switzerland. We headed back into the Maggia Valley (no tourists this time) but much further up the valley, right to the end where it splits into two side valleys at the lovely village of Bignasco. 

The Bavona Valley to the West is a wild and wonderful U-shaped glacier valley lined on both sides by magnificent steep cliffs, lush and green with overgrown vegetation. And yet there are a number of charming villages along the way; this valley is so full of boulders from a multitude of landslides, that the natives built their homes of stone, in, on and adjacent to the boulders! Life was so difficult here, that they even planted and harvested grass for their animals on top of the boulders, and built shelters for them beneath the boulders.

The trail we followed is Section 1 of Trail no.59: "Sentiero Cristallina", which actually "starts" in Bignasco and heads up valley to San Carlo (we did this stretch starting in San Carlo and going down-valley), with Parts 2 and 3 going over the Cristallina Pass into the Bredretto Valley to the North. Alternately, the trails in this valley are also called "Sentieri di Pietra", or "Trails of Stone", a very apt description. 

Strict hiking time out of the valley is four hours, so that means about 7 hours for us, with all the stops along the way to admire everything, especially all the unique stone houses, the boulder barns in the middle of the forests and the spectacular 50-m high waterfall at Foroglio, one of the highlights of this valley. 

(NOTE: Photos of DAY 1 of our 3-day trip can be found HERE)

The first bus from Locarno takes us up the Maggia Valley to Bignasco, where the Bavona Valley meets the Maggia Valley from the West. This view is down the Maggia Valley from Bignasco. 

At Bignasco we have to wait for another bus, which will take us up the Bavona Valley (on the left). This view is of the village of Bignasco, and the Lavizzara Valley to the Northeast

On the way up the Bavona Valley, we pass the waterfall at Foroglio, which we will admire on our hike back down. 

One of several villages in the Bavona Valley, which we passed on our way up the valley on the bus. 

End of the bus line at San Carlo. From here you can take a cable car to the upper plateau at Robiei (the Basodino Glacier there is the largest glacier in Canton Ticino), or hike up. We are hiking down the Bavona Valley along trail no. 59. The time suggestion of 3 hours is WAY off. It takes at least four hours to walk to Bignasco, without stops.

A look down the beautiful Bavona Valley from San Carlo

Before starting on our hike down the valley, we took 30 minutes to look at the small village of San Carlo.

Heading down the valley now, a last look at San Carlo

Walking time from San Carlo to Bignasco is at least four hours, not three, as per the trail marker in San Carlo. This was a 13-km hike!

Heading SE, this is the 16th Century chapel of Gannariente

16th Century chapel of Gannariente

Next village down: Sonlerto

So many unique details to admire in these villages.

This building is from the 16th Century, was used to store grain (rye mostly)

A look back at the village of Sonlerto after passing through. Big boulders just got incorporated into the construction of the houses. 

Panorama view of Sonlerto, looking up the Bavona Valley

Continuing down the Bavona Valley

This next village is called Roseto. This is the one I photographed on the way up the valley, from the bus window!

Now we've arrived at Foroglio, with its 50-m high waterfall

The signs indicate that the trails are called "Sentieri di pietra" (Trails of stone)

Wandering around Foroglio, and a good place for a "coffee break"

We had climbed up above the village for a way, trying to get a better look at the waterfall. This is heading back down again. 

We decided to try approaching the waterfall from the front

Nice and cool on this hot day!

VIDEO:

Foroglio Waterfall

Village of Foroglio

Interesting way that the boulders were incorporated into the building structures

Following the forest trail, we found several of these stables built under the boulders. Farmers let their goats roam in the forests, and could keep them safe here at night. 

A stable built under the boulders

And of course there are always plenty of lizards around! Also enjoying the Spring sunshine, as we were.... 

Under the boulders is also a good place to build cellars, as it stays nice and cool there. Here the trail crossed the road and the river, and the rest of the way was on the South side of the river, all through the forest. 

It's always a treat when we catch sight of an emerald lizard!

Crossing the Bavona river to get back to Bignasco, where we caught the bus back out of the Maggia Valley. 

What our 13-km hike looked like on Google Satellite Maps

It took less than an hour by bus to get back out of the Maggia Valley and to our second accommodation, a hostel in Caserma. For our DAY 3 trip to Indemini, we had to leave at 7 a.m. the next morning, and needed to be fairly close by.

Photos of our DAY3 Excursion can be found HERE.

The hostel where we spent the second night, in Losone. We had to leave at 7 a.m. to get the connection to Indemini.

Giro della Valle del Salto: Three-Day Trip to Canton Ticino, DAY 1

(Post done on December 17, 2021)

First Day of Three-Day trip to Ticino: Valle del Salto, Maggia

Sunday May 15, 2016 – We had a totally different plan for our first day in the Italian part of Switzerland, but we hadn’t anticipated the masses of people traveling down from the Northern part of Switzerland on Sunday. The train, which started in Zurich, was so full by the time it reached Zug (which is the next stop!) that there was standing room only in First Class as well. So we switched trains, but that one kept getting delayed because too many people were trying to load up their bikes (room for 15 bikes, but they managed to squeeze in 40!) 

The bus in Locarno we had wanted to take didn’t wait, so we chose a different valley instead (Valle Maggia), and did a neat little 3.5 hour round tour into a side valley (Valle del Salto), which was wonderfully quiet and away from the crowds (except the bus to get there, that was bad). Because of the delay, we started only at 11:45, quite late for us. 

The Valle del Salto is made up mostly of heavily forested steep slopes with the odd pasture and cluster of renovated Rustici homes, reinforcing how beautiful the Ticino wilderness is, and how difficult life must have been for farmers of yore. Kilometers of retaining walls, well-laid stone steps, and small stone shelters hanging on the steep slopes attest to years of backbreaking work. The hike to the back of the valley consisted of an hour of steady uphill, but it was a nice trail through forests with massive chestnut trees and wild streams cutting clefts into the steep slopes. 

The only bad part was having to get back into the overcrowded bus to get back out of the Maggia Valley!

Description of the "Giro della Valle del Salto" official themed trail, which we discovered last minute as a Plan B because we missed the bus to our original destination. The description starts on the North side of the Valle del Salto. We did the tour in the opposite direction. 

20 minutes to the chapel on the hill which overlooks the whole valley, and just over 3 hours to do the round tour back to opposite the chapel, so about 3.5 hours to get back here to the bus stop

Walking through the village of Maggia (for which the valley is named) heading toward the trail

Heading uphill, the trail first passes through some terraced vineyards

In the Ticino, many of the trails are laid out with stone steps like these, which makes the ascent quick and easy. 

After a 20-minute hike we reach the chapel of Santa Maria della Pioda, from where you get a fabulous view over the Maggia Valley. 

The chapel was built in the late middle ages and has frescoes dating from the 15th and 17th Centuries. 

A view down the Maggia Valley from the Pioda Chapel

From the chapel we head uphill on the South side of the Salto River. It's a steady uphill for one hour, then another 20 minutes to the back of the valley where we cross the river and head back on the other side. 

Steady uphill for an hour through thick shady chestnut forests

Passing through an open clearing called a Monti, typical of this area. These vacation homes are accessible only on foot as we are doing.

Toward the back of the Salto Valley are the mountains with access to the neighbouring Verzasca Valley. That would be another 6 hours to cross!

Some interesting passages

Another set of homes below the trail, and high above the steep gorge. 

Crossing over a "side stream"

Now we're approaching the point at which we can cross the river. This is a typical emerald pool which you find so often in this region: Clear, fresh, cold water that you can swim in, if you can access it. 

Family fun! There was a bridge here to cross the river to the North side. 

Now we are heading back down to Maggia along the North side of the gorge. 

Magnificent giant chestnut trees

A look south across the gorge to the smattering of houses we passed along the trail on the way up. 

Another look back up the valley to the mountains which separate the Maggia Valley from the Verzasca Valley. In 1989 I did a hike (on the Verzasca side) that included a passage over the ridge in the center. One day I want to repeat that hike... 

This is the votive chapel in Braiaa (mentioned in the description of the tour) with 19th-Century paintings by a local artist. 

A look down at the Pioda Chapel from the other side of the gorge. 

And here we are above the Salto Waterfalls, crossing the bridge and returning to the Pioda Chapel, before descending back down to Maggia. 

This is the round tour we did as a Plan B, a good choice. We really enjoyed the tour, which is about 3.5 hours. Unfortunately, the bus to take us back out of the Maggia Valley (20 minutes) was so packed full, and in the heat of the day, rather uncomfortable. 

What the tour (9 km, 3.5 hours) looks like on Google Satellite Maps.

AS A SIDE NOTE:

I had purchased a new (used) set of hiking boots online, which I was able to pick up nearby. This meant fighting our way out of the jam-packed bus at Ponte Brolla just at the exit of the Maggia Valley (the rest of the people in the bus continued on to Locarno train station) and then walking another 3.5 kilometers (partly along the Melezza River) to Verscio, and taking the train from there. We were able to do this additional "walk" because we were staying in a hotel nearby, and therefore had plenty of daylight hours left! (It was 4:30 p.m. when we started on our second, 1-hour walk)

A second walk, this time from Ponte Brolla to Verscio, to pick up some boots I had purchased from a private seller online. 

In our hotel (Rotonda) in Gordola, trying on my  new shoes, which had to "be carried" for two more day hikes on our three days in Ticino. As nice as they were, they weren't really cut out for hiking after all.  

Our Hotel for the first night, photo taken in the morning on our way to our Day2 Hike of the 3-day trip to Ticino

NOTE: Photos of DAY 2 and DAY 3 of this lovely 3-day trip can be viewed HERE and HERE