Bristen - Golzerensee
I did this hike on the 26th of May, 2024. I had seen this trail on Switzerlandmobility, Höhenweg Maderanertal, and it looked really nice. It was still a bit early in the season, but the trail looked almost snow free, so I decided to go.
Full route: Swisstopo
I started the hike in Bristen, which I reached from Zürich by train and bus. It was a really nice spring morning as I started my walk into the valley, and the ground was everywhere covered with spring flowers.
The trail changes between following gravel roads and regular hiking paths for most of the way into the valley, and you constantly change between walking in more dense forest and over open fields with a few river crossings on the way.
As you make your way into the valley, you get better and better views to the surrounding mountains and back down through the valley. I really like hiking in spring, when there is still fresh snow on the mountain tops and everything is green.
Towards the end of the valley, I came across a great viewpoint, where I took a small break. From here, I could see some large waterfalls coming down from the mountains on the other side of the valley, and it looked absolutely amazing.
From here, the trail started winding its way up over the valley side. I did not meet any other hikers on the entire way up, and I always find that to be a very special and nice experience, being completely alone in the mountains.
On my way up, I came across some great waterfalls coming down just next to the trail. It had been raining in the week before I visited the valley, so there was plenty of water flowing down over the mountian side.
At the bottom of the valley, where the trail turns around and takes you up in direction Windgällenhütte, I decided to have my lunch break. There is a hut at the very bottom of the valley, which I would really like to visit at one point, cause the landscape looked stunning in there.
After my lunch break, I continued on the trail upwards. It was a really nice hike up, and as I got closer to the top, there started to be more snow on the ground. From up here, I had great views back down in direction Bristen, where I started the hike.
I didn’t go all the way up to Windgällenhütte, but I was since this hike once more in the area hiking up to Windgällenhütte. Walking along the top part of this trail, I had great views to the opposite side of the valley, and I took some shorter breaks along this part to take everything in.
The trail back down in direction Golzerensee, was just as beautiful as the way up had been. Also here, I came across spring flowers, which was a nice colorful contrast to the still slightly brown landscape.
I reached Golzerensee, which was the end of my hike. It was very nice around the lake, and since I had some time until the next cable car down, I walked part of the way around the lake.
Back down in Bristen, I caught the bus back to Amsteg, from where I started the journey back home to Zürich.
