This hike has been on my ‘must-hike’ list since last summer, and when I saw Urška writing about recently, it got definitely on my top list of things. The Oeschinen Lake (German: Oeschinensee) is a beautiful lake in the Bernese Overland, Switzerland, east of Kandersteg, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site:
Oeschinensee view from Heuberg
So we prepared a hiking trip the day before. The weather forecast said “mostly sunny”. Only to find out that the weather was not that great in the morning. Yes, true: Technically the sun is shining, at least above the clouds:
Mostly Sunny? A good day for a hiking tour!
It was a very spontaneous hiking tour this Sunday afternoon: a hike up to the Wildspitz mountain and the border between the Canton Schwyz and Zug. Full of beautiful views, flowers and awesome butterflies!
The boarder between the Canton of Schwyz and Canton of Zug is marked with several stones. Below stone No. 18 (dated 1907) near at Langmatt:
Grenzstein Langmatt
The Karwendel is a mountain range on the border between Germany and Austria.
View down to Mittenwald from Karwendel (click to enlarge)
Mountains look very different, depending on view angle and place. And as with watching clouds, they can build funny sculptures. This one is made of limestone: can you spot the sleeping giant?
Sleeping Stone Giant
Happy spotting 🙂
The Enzian belongs to the gentian family (Gentianaceae). This one shows the Clusius-Enzian which can be found up to 2800 m in limestone areas. The deep blue makes it a special flower. It is protected by law, but can be found in many places in the Alps.
Enzian
I have been busy with too many things, so I apologize: no techy blog post this weekend. But what I can share is a unique wonder of nature encountered during a bike trip today at the end of the Klöntalsee:
Trees growing on a tree (click to enlarge)
During cold winters the Lake Lauerz gets covered with ice. And if it is cold enough for a few weeks it gets enough ice to have it completely covered more than 15 cm of ice. That’s the time of the year to enjoy a walk or to play ice hokey:
Schwanau mit Mythen
Winter is tough in Switzerland. What could be better than to escape the ground fog and go up the sunny side?
View from Obhäg (Click to enlarge)
View from the Obhäg towards the central Switzerland Alps.
Happy Escaping 🙂
Cold and humid air are forming beautiful sculptures these days. The image shows the leaves of a Japanese Umbrella-Pine (Sciadopitys):
Frosted Sciadopitys Leaves
Happy Frosting 🙂
A benefit getting up early on a Sunday morning is the chance to watch a beautiful sunrise:
Red Morning
Happy Sunday 🙂
Mother nature offered an interesting puzzle this morning: a sunrise with beautiful light sculptures. But where is the sun?
Morning sunlight without the Sun?
The Carlina Aucalis (we call it locally the “Silberdistel”) is native to alpine regions in central Europe. When all the other flowers disappear in fall time, the Silberdistel is worth a stop while hiking in higher alpine regions.
White Silberdistel
Achenkirch is a municipality in the Schwaz district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Located nearby on a hill is the “Annakirchl”:
Annakirchl in Achenkirch
The Haggenegg is a summit at 1414 m between Schwyz and Alpthal. The summit played an important role during the “Marchenstreit“: a border conflict starting around the year 1100 between Schwyz and the Einsiedeln Abbey.
Sunrise from the Haggenegg
The Lilium Martagon (Turk’s Cap Lily, Lily of Istanbul, Sultan Lily or Dragon Lily.) grows up to 2 meters and is one of the most beautiful lily flower in my area. I can find it mostly around 1000-1200 m in the nearby Alps, e.g. on the Rigi mountain range.
Lilium Martagon
With the beautiful Alps just outside the door step, I hiked up to the Rigi Hochflue on Sunday, so I can share pictures of alpine flowers at 1698 m (click to enlarge):
The Seefelder Spitze is a mountain peak near Seefeld (Tyrol) at 2220 meters high. That peak was the goal of a hiking tour in the Karwendel Alps:
Just below the Seefelder Spitze, still lots of snow up there
The Primula is a flowers in my region which announces the spring time. Captured that beautiful one today with a bug on it 🙂
Primula with Bug
