Strada Alta Leventina from Altanca to Osco

Thursday June 3, 2021 -- This choice for today's holiday hike was very disappointing for me. Even though the weather was supposed to be overcast everywhere, it turns out that there were blue skies closer to home and cold, overcast weather in the region we went to! 

We had long wanted to complete the missing section of the Strada Alta (High Road) in the North Leventina Valley, which is just south of the Gotthard Pass in the upper Ticino where the weather is usually better than in the North. It's not often that we travel South and have worse weather there. Granted, it started out not too bad, but I KNEW it had turned better in the North... (back in 2016 we had actually planned to hike this same stretch, and it was the same scenario..  that story HERE)

As usual there were several interesting communities to admire as we passed through, even a quite different style of houses than we normally see in the Ticino (these were more like Valais constructions) and a couple of cute churches and many lovely meadows, but the forest trail wasn't nice, and I sure missed the sunshine for the views down the valley! Also, Urs saw two emerald lizards, and I did not! (It is always a treat to see those!)

Probably the best part of the trip were the bus rides up to the start in Altanca, and down from the end in Osco, as 1) we were the only passengers on each ride, and 2) the streets are so narrow and curvy that it is a real marvel how they are built to access these communities so high up above the valley!

The Strada Alta Trail starts in Airolo and ends in Pollegio near Biasca, about 45 km altogether. We completed it now, in five stages:

1) Airolo to Altanca: Oct.22, 2016 = 6.5 km (cut short because it was very cold)  --> Photos HERE
2) Altanca to Osco:  June 3, 2021 = 11.5 km  (today's hike)
3) Osco to Rossura:   Dec.26, 2014 = 5 km (one of our earlier hikes)
4) Rossura to Cavagnago:  Oct.3, 2018 = 11.5 km   -->     Photos HERE
5) Cavagnago to Pollegio:   May 24, 2020 = 11.5 km   -->    Photos HERE

To get to the high road, there are several places at the valley bottom from where you can get a bus (a small post bus). In our case, we had a connection from Ambri, which passes first through this community called Quinto

The bus also passed by this cute little church in Catto, which is just below Lurengo, a village we also passed later on on our hike.

Here in Altanca we started on this final "missing" section of the Strada Alta Trail (in December 2016 we had walked from the start of the trail in Airolo to here, but cut the hike short because there was a very cold wind blowing). Our goal is Osco, but it took us a bit longer because we did a detour to another village off the main trail

Here is where we ended in 2016 (at that time we walked down to the valley bottom as well, as there were no buses scheduled for our descent). Now we are starting again at this spot, the church in Altanca.

There were fewer of these stone houses along the way, than the wooden Leventina houses

Most of the construction were these gorgeous dark brown wooden houses.

A look back as we leave the village of Altanca. On the hillside at the back is the Ritom Funicular, which until not long ago was the steepest funicular in Europe. You can ride it up to the beautiful dammed Lake Ritom and a very lovely high alpine plateau.

We were surprised to still see some blossoming trees!

Not long after Altanca is the tiny village of Ronco. Each tiny hamlet has a church. These are mostly from the 19th Century. 

Till here we were on paved roads, and from here it's a lovely meadow trail down to the next village of Deggio (above my head in the photo). Splendid views down the Leventina Valley with the Ticino River

A look behind us at the beautiful meadows. At the far back is the Gotthard Massif, through which the Gotthard Tunnel connects us to the Northern side of the Alps.

I can't get enough of the beautiful meadows all around us. Here, they are not yet ready for mowing!

Village center in Deggio

The church in Deggio had a very pretty carved entrance door

The painted ceiling inside the church in Deggio has recently been touched up.

More of what they call "Leventina Houses"

Just 500m further on from Deggio is a cluster of houses called "San Martino". The main feature here is an old chapel dedicated to St.Martin, with lovely frescoes inside which we were able to admire, because the chapel was not locked. (By the way, this trail is also part of National Trail no.2: Trans Swiss Trail)

The chapel of St. Martin, built somewhere around the 11th Century, is an important example of churches built along this trail which used to be the major thoroughfare of that time. To prevent it falling apart, it was recently restored at a cost of 430,000 SFr.!!!! (We had our picnic lunch here).

Recent restorations highlight the beauty of this artwork inside an almost 1000-year-old building. There is also a large painting of St.Martin cutting off a piece of his cloak for a beggar man

This beautiful piece of artwork is painting directly on the wall of the church. (St.Martin cutting his cloak for the beggar)

A fresco of the Last Supper inside St.Martin's Chapel in Quinto

Continuing along the Strada Alta Trail, another look behind us up the Leventina Valley to the Gotthard Massif (there is still so much snow there, it's just not melting this year.) Down below is the tiny St.Martin's Chapel

This field is all buttercups!

Some other pretty flowers along the way. The Narcissi were a pleasant surprise, considering we just recently went to see them in Seewis: Someone has access to lots of these... this beautiful bouquet was in a roadside shrine, and this time we could really smell them!

An attractive waterfall

Now we've arrived in Lurengo... just above that little church we saw when we came up by bus. There is lots of construction going on in this village, so nothing special of note here.

Now we came to a steep descent through a forested area, but there must have been a lot of storm damage in the past years, because so much of the forest has been cleared out. 

Steep descent through the forest toward Osco

Across the valley is this spectacular cliff, along which run both the freeway and the railway. The noise of the freeway was a constant background noise, but you get used to it. 

At this time of year, lush ferns are abundant on the hillsides.

Below us is one more village before Osco: This one is called Freggio

Urs is always a happy hiker!

Huge boulders, waterfalls, ferns... it makes an interesting tableau

The church in Freggio. In the background, rain clouds seem to be gathering above the mountains.

More lovely meadows

This community of Freggio had a very attractive core.

Another look backwards as we continue southwards. Below on the left are railway tunnels

A close-up look at some of the many tunnels which "aerate" the Swiss mountains!

I was so excited to capture a hummingbird butterfly on a photo, although this is the best I could do before it flew away! 

A detour off the trail to a higher village called Vigera offers us a view of our final destination: The village of Osco 

Down below at valley bottom, the Treno Gottardo is just emerging from one of the tunnels. Those fantastic "banks" built to support the railway line are about 150 years old. 

Heading down to Osco

I had a quick look at the cemetery in Osco, because it had particularly nice sculptures and headstones. 

In particular, these two statuettes impressed me. They commemorate the lives of people named Pedrini, of which it seems half of the cemetery is populated...

Inside the church it looks like the paintings have also recently been touched up. 

As I admired the cemetery, Urs had a look at the houses in Osco

A view over the rooftops of Osco from the community laundry (two washing machines and an outdoor covered clothesline where anyone can hang their laundry!)

I really like the half-and-half houses....

Church steeple in Osco

Each community has a fountain, which is good for us to refill our water bottles! Here is where we caught the bus back down to the valley bottom, to Faido this time. 

The final missing piece of the Strada Alta Trail: Altanca to Osco. 12+ km and 3.5 hours with the detour to Vigera. The bus ride down to Faido was an experience in itself!!!

The entire road down to Faido was a series of these very tight switchbacks!!

Across from the train station in Faido is this old hotel, no longer in use, because the freeway now bypasses the old road, and fewer people come through here. It is such a shame that they cannot restore or renovate these old buildings...

This is the location of the Strada Alta Trail, in particular the section we did...

Old Thermal Baths at Bad Pfäfers, and two Fortress Ruins

(Three hikes since the weekend, so I have a lot of pictures to sort and stories to tell, but this is not in chronological order at the moment...)

Friday June 4, 2021 -- There is another stretch of the country which we very often travel through, in the Eastern part of the country (St.Gallen, Graubünden), namely along Lake Walensee, past Sargans, along the Rhine River past Bad Ragaz, Landquart to Chur... and always we pass the entrance to the mystical Tamina Gorge with its old thermal baths at the back of the gorge behind the town of Bad Ragaz, and we talk often about finally going to see it. Drawback is that you have to walk four kilometers on partly paved roads to get to the historical Bad Pfäfers spa buildings (and to a fabulous walk inside the narrowest part of the gorge), so today we decided: Let's pay for the bus! (There IS a bus, but it costs 6 SFr. per trip for everyone).

From the old Spa buildings at the back of the gorge, you pay to walk 500m to the source of the hot water (36.5 degrees) along the raging Tamina River with the cliff walls soaring high above you, bending inward to almost form a roof. Hunters from the nearby Pfäfers Monastery discovered this spring in about 1240, and recognizing the healing powers of the hot water built wooden bathhouses near the spring, where sick people were lowered in baskets from 70m higher up (sometimes blindfolded) and left to "stew" for up to ten days!

We then returned to the old hotel and walked up and out of the gorge (about 100m on 310 wooden steps) to the town of Pfäfers, where we visited the castle ruins of Burg Wartenstein before descending back to Bad Ragaz. (Special Note: Internet information about the arch bridge which crosses the Tamina Gorge is worth reading, link is HERE.... ) Since this wasn't a particularly strenuous hike, we decided to walk to another neaby ruins (both ruins are prominent landmarks as we pass through this region by train), namely the Freudenberg Castle ruins.

Contrary to the weather report, we actually had very nice weather with lots of blue skies, maybe just a little too hot because it was partly muggy. But a great day, another 12-km, 4-hour hike on the side of the valley which we rarely go to. In fact, it was quite satisfying to look across the Rhine River toward the Chlus, that narrow passage that opens up the Prättigau, where we were just five days ago.

From Bad Ragaz train station we boarded a large bus which first drove through narrow city streets, and then likewise narrow streets through the Tamina Gorge. At places, the distance from railing to cliff were barely wide enough to pass.

At the back of the gorge are the buildings of the old Bad Pfäfers Thermal "spa" and beyond that the entrance to a 500m-long very narrow passage which we could follow right to the source of the hot spring. Entrance was 5 Fr. 

Through this passage people in the middle-ages made their way along the raging Tamina River to the hot springs

This final section to the baths is too "dangerous", so a parallel tunnel has been created for tourists. But this is where the sick people used to pass. Those who could not walk were lowered from the openings above

Caption in English: "The first written record of the spa dates to 1382. Initially, the patients bathed very close to the spring in rock recesses and wooden bathtubs. They stayed in the water up to ten days at once and left it as little as possible. They believed that the water would soften up their skin so much that toxins would be drawn out of the body. Getting into the awe-inspiring gorge was especially arduous. Those who could climbed on ladders, other were roped down in baskets".

Looking straight up to openings above, from where patients were lowered in baskets. This would be a height of about 70 meters. After we left the gorge, we passed at the level of these openings on a natural bridge. 

VIDEO:

Tamina Gorge

Side tunnels made for tourists to get to the source of the hotsprings. The small spring where the water bubbles out is behind a glass window, but a fountain nearby has warm water running out of it. 

Walking in to the source of the hotsprings and back out again is about 1 km. From here we head out of the gorge further up.

From the former spa, we climbed up higher, further back in the gorge, passing over the tunnels and then up out the other side. From there we walked to the village of Pfäfers, the site of the Monastery which administered the spa, then to the Ruins of Burg Wartenstein, back to the entrance of the Tamina Gorge, and then to the ruins of Burg Freudenberg, before catching a bus back to the train station. Including the walk to the hotsprings, it was about 12 km and four hours.

Here at the natural bridge we are actually standing above the hotsprings, which are some 70m or so below. 

It is hard to see, but those are openings in the rock which were the skylights when we were in the tunnel about 70m below. 

From the natural bridge, we climbed up another 100m out of the gorge, mostly on a series of wooden steps

Someone counted those steps, and marked them on the trail marker! 310 steps, apparently.

As we emerged from the gorge, we could see up the valley on the other side. The community on the other side of the river and gorge is called Valens

Whereas in our part of the country, all the meadows have now been mowed, here there were still lots of meadows and meadow flowers to enjoy.

The current meadow-flower seems to be the columbine. They were everywhere, and in so many different shades of pink, blue, violet and almost black!

After exiting the gorge, the trail to Pfäfers followed the road parallel to the gorge, but on comfortable paths. We found this convenient bench for our picnic lunch with a view across the gorge to Valens. Behind us a small post bus is making a run up this side of the valley

The bridge over the Tamina Gorge requires special mention. On the far side of the gorge, the original curving road from Bad Ragaz to that side of the valley was prone to rock slides and needed repair, but it was easier to build this bridge to connect the two sides of the gorge. This bridge is the highest arch bridge ever built in Europe (200m above the gorge bottom) and has a main arch span of 259 meters. The bridge was only just recently completed, in 2017. The bridge won the 2018 International Supreme Award for Structural Engineering Excellence. 

HERE is a link to a particularly fantastic photo which shows the construction of the arch: PHOTO CLICK HERE.  This is from the website  http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tamina_Bridge 

More lovely meadows

We came across a spot where we could look way down into the gorge. You can just see the road below.

Walking along the Tamina Gorge

Here we reached the village of Pfäfers. In the back is the former Pfäfers Monastery, now part of a psychiatric clinic. 

Such beautiful flowers, so simple yet stunning!

All kinds of colours of columbines in the meadows!

On a round-about route through Pfäfers we reached the New Wartenstein Castle, which is now a hotel. From the hotel grounds we get a look at the Old Wartenstein Castle, which we want to visit. 

As a side-note, the "New Wartenstein Castle" has been converted into a rather ugly hotel, so this picture from 1885 is a better rendition of the region. We did go out to the edge of the hotel grounds for the view. 

This is the view from the hotel grounds of the New Wartenstein Hotel. Below is the city of Bad Ragaz and the Rhine River

We are so happy that many of the farms along the way have these self-serve fridges stocked with nice cold drinks which we can purchase! It was very welcome on this very hot day!

From the farm we first went to see the St. George Chapel on the hill on the right, but it was closed. We did learn that the road here into the side valley was used in Roman times as a pilgrim road to Rome. 

A chapel on this hill, the fortress on the next. Burgruine Alt Wartenstein, our next stop

Checking out the fortress ruins

On the other side of Bad Ragaz are the other fortress ruins which we have decided to also have a look at. It requires walking down to city level and with another slight ascent.

I was very surprised that the forests here are STILL full of Bear Garlic. We sure have seen a lot of bear-garlic-covered forest floors this year!

Our trail now takes us past the entrance of the Tamina Gorge where we started earlier by bus

Tamina Gorge:  4.2 km long

On this hot day it was a real pleasure to see these neighbourhood children playing in the fountain!

Here we are at the ruins of the Freudenberg Fortress

And from here we look South over Bad Ragaz, and can see the other fortress ruins on the hillside on the right.

Close-up picture of the ruins of Old Wartenstein on the left, and the New Wartenstein Castle on the right, with a large statue of Jesus like in Rio de Janeiro

One of the remaining towers of what was a rather large fortress compound

I was SOOOOO glad that there was a fountain here with fresh cold water to cool off in!

Urs likes red and he liked these poppies, so he gets to be in this photo

There was a display of some pretty good mock-ups of how the castle might have looked back in the day!!!

On our way down from the fortress ruins, we passed this beautiful waterfall where a family was having a good time

This photo is from the bus stop below the fortress, where we caught a bus back to the station in Bad Ragaz.

Our hike as depicted on Google Earth Maps

On the bus on the way back to the station, we passed once again near the entrance to the gorge.

And one note of interest. Way up even higher on the mountainside was this look-out point with a very weird "creature". There were lots of works of art displayed in the city, even one sculpture in the center of a river, so I assume this was part of the art display???

The location of our hike today in relation to where we live