Guarda - Ardez
I did this hike together with a friend on the 27th of October, 2024. We had decided to go to Graubünden and Engadine, to hopefully catch some of the golden larch trees, before they completely faded. We found this hike on Switzelrandmobility, stage 8 of Via Engiadina, and since it looked nice, we decided to hike this trail.
Full route: Swisstopo
After two trains from Zürich, we started the hike at Guarda train station. After a short but steep walk up through Guarda, we entered the forest and trail into the valley. The weather was great, and although the larch trees were fading, the colors were still really beautifull.
For the first part of the trail after Guarda, you walk in forest and the trail follows the river coming down from the valley. After some time, the forest starts to open up and you enter the open landscape half way into the valley.
There started to be more clouds on the sky, but the views and autumn colors were still amazing. We followed the river into the valley until we crossed over on a bridge and continued the trail up on the other side.
Walking up on the other side, we had views back in direction Guarda and to the mountain peaks behind as well as further into the valley. This part of the trail followed a gravel road, so it was an easy path with a steady incline.
I really like autumn and the brown and golden colors as a contrast to the sometimes more grey weather and snow on the mountain tops. The mountain peaks in the back of this valley sits right on the border to Austria, and there are trails leading below them and into the other valleys nearby.
We followed the trail up and decided to take a lunch break on the top, before continuing down in direction Ardez. From up here, we could see further into Engadine, in direction Zernez. I think this here is one of my favourite areas in Switzerland, and I have a long list of hikes I would like to do here.
After our lunch break, we continued on the trail which for some time runs along the top and offers great panoramic views in direction Scuol. It is a rather easy trail, some places a bit narrow, but no where did we find it problematic.
The last part down to Ardez again took us through forest and past the larch trees. I found this hike really amazing, and would like to come back in summer to see how everything looks in a different season.
Back down in Ardez, we took the next train in direction Landquart from where we continued back home to Zürich.
