Zernez - Vallun Chafuol
I did this hike together with a friend on the 21st of June, 2025. We wanted to do a two day hike with stayover at a campground, and decided on this hike as day 1. We got inspiration for this hike from stage 5 and 6 of the Nationalpark-Panoramaweg.
Â
Full route: SwisstopoÂ
We had decided on the Chapella campground in Engadin, and we went there with our tents already the day before this hike. After a great nights sleep, we woke up in beautiful surroundings and perfect hiking weather. After a short train ride, we started the hike from Zernez.
After walking out of town, the trail quickly made its way up through forest and we got the first views into Val Cluozza. I had been in this area the year before, but back then I didn’t hike down into the valley, so I really looked forward to this.
Down in the valley, we crossed the river before continuing up on the other side. It was getting warmer, and we appreciated having to hike through another area with forest and some shade.
The ascent on the other side of the valley was at shorter parts steep, but generally okay. The higher we came, the greater views into and out of the valley. At one point, we also had views to a large rock glacier on the other side, which the geologist in me forund really cool.
After a last climb, we made it to the top of Fuorcla Murter, from where we got the first views into the rest of the national park. The clouds were still relatively high and light, although we knew there was a risk of a thunderstorm coming in the late afternoon.
Crossing over the small pass, we went through an area with lots of marmots. They were generally not afraid of us, and we kept to the marked trail, to not disturb them unnecessarily.
Starting the descent, we could see the road going through the national park as well as the very colorful Lai da l’Ova Spin. I have done a hike on the opposite side of the lake in the national park, and it was fun to see everything from over here.
For some time hiking down on this side, we kept passing by marmots and got even better views to the lake below. The trail on this side was also fairly easy, although steeper with lose material in a few places, but nothing we found problematic.
As we were almost down, the dark clouds started gathering in the distance and we could also hear some thunder. We luckily didn’t have a long way back to the bus stop, and made it in time. We took the bus out of the national park back to Zernez, from where we caught a bus back to the campground for another night in our tents.
