Walking/Hiking the Alps of Switzerland from Davos and Scuol
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Walking/Hiking the Alps of Switzerland from Davos and Scuol Swiss Hiking/Walking at Davos and Scuol – Images by Lee Foster by Lee Foster Switzerland is a special place for civilized day hikes and walks in the fresh mountain air amidst stunning alpine vistas, but without requiring any major vertical-climbing exertion. A hiker returns each evening to culinary artistry and comfortable lodgings. This lure is particularly strong in eastern Switzerland around the towns of Scuol and Davos, near the one and only Swiss National Park. Unlike serious U.S. and Canadian mountain hiking, available only to the backpacker or energetic climber, Swiss hiking is accessible to people of all levels of fitness and all travel styles. The excellent Swiss Railway winds through the alpine valleys, making available thousands of miles of hiking trails from the many rail stops. At many rail stations you’ll see hikers departing. Sites beyond the rail stops can be accessed easily by an efficient bus system, called the postal motor coach. Most hikes occur along relatively level ground, but often in spectacular alpine settings, sometimes reachable by cable cars. Lunches can be planned at restaurants along the way. Evenings can be spent back at your hotel amidst the full comfort of quality lodgings. Swiss mountain hikers need carry only a light daypack while walking this “rooftop of Europe,” as Switzerland is sometimes called, partly because three-fifths of the country is The Alps. The Hiking/Walking The mountains around the small towns of Scuol and Davos in the Engadine province present many excellent outings. You can plan your outing with advance information from the Swiss Tourist Office. Once in Scuol or Davos, you can either hike on your own or join outings organized by hotels or by the local Tourist Office. Guides can transport you to the hiking trailhead, sometimes using taxis or the local bus systems. A typical day of hiking from Scuol might take you to the Swiss National Park. You hike along the specified trails amidst breathtaking alpine scenery. At selected overlooks your binoculars may pick out three deer-family denizens of these mountains–the red deer, ibex, and chamois. The weather is generally pleasantly cool from June 1-October 1, which is the hiking season. Some hikers wear Swiss-made Raichle hiking boots, but these should be purchased in advance and broken in prior to a trip. A daypack with rain gear will ensure that a hiker can proceed in all weather. The Alps in sun and the Alps in a drizzle present equally fascinating perspectives. The fresh and clean air, the brilliant sunshine, the alternately jagged and rounded high peaks, and the ample network of relatively level trails are all elements in the landscape. Wildflowers are visible throughout the hiking season. On some walks you pass glaciers, where snow fall exceeds snow melt. From numerous springs in the mountains the water seeps out. Small streams are plentiful. Hikes are generally leisurely affairs, walking from village to village along the hillsides, or proceeding more energetically as one wishes. Hikes take you past terraced hillsides, populated with brown cows, or through the forests of deciduous larch and evergreen fir or pine trees. A visitor may well want to engage the services of a native mountain guide for a day or two of orientation in the region. I engaged such a guide at Scuol. “The mountains are my life,” said my guide. “I like nothing better than to walk through them, all the while dreaming and looking for things on the hillsides.” My guide exemplified the general healthiness of the region, with muscles like steel, a heartbeat at rest that pulsed only 47 times per minute, and a not-an-ounce-of-fat physique. Like most guides, he organizes outings that amount to pleasant walks rather than marathon climbs. However, he can arrange walks for every taste and level of expertise, including high-peak scrambling above the tree line for the physically ambitious. We walk up the Tavru Valley for an overview of the Swiss National Park, an unforgettable experience. My guide led me to views of three prominent peaks–Pisoc, Minger, and Foraz. While I was dazzled by the alpine vistas, he set up a powerful telescope on a tripod and acquainted me with a herd of deer-family animals, called chamois, grazing the hillside a half-mile away. Incidentally, hiking the Swiss Alps also competes favorably with some Third-World trekking opportunities because the Swiss landscape has no health problems of potable water or available food supplies. Moreover, there are no physical security risks in the Swiss Alps. The Swiss are skilled in the arts of hospitality and welcome the foreigner graciously, with a friendly reserve and dignity. They know that many jobs in this country of 7.8 million people depend on tourism. The Swiss give good service and include the price of service and tax in all purchases, so there is no need to tip in this country, especially in restaurants and hotels, unless the service is extraordinary. The Scuol and Davos Regions The area around Scuol, the Engadine, is an intriguing area of Europe. Much of this fascination becomes apparent during a few days of walking. In this long, north-south aligned valley, the Germanic and Latin cultures of Europe met and mixed. The result, for example in house building, is that the wood-working skills of the north complemented the stone-masonry skills of the south. Through the Engadine runs the Inn River, a stream that eventually empties into the Danube and the Black Sea. The Scuol region is a five-hour train ride east from Zurich. Many U.S. travelers fly into Zurich, overnight and adjust there, then take the train the next day to Scuol. The Swiss train system, rather than a rental car, is the optimum mode of transportation here, and a rail pass known as the Swiss Card is an economical way to purchase a train ticket. Tarasp Castle is one of the Scuol area’s major architectural legacies. Tarasp is worth a hike or taxi outing to see. The castle is situated on a promontory in the middle of the valley, affording a good view for defensive purposes. Notable in the interior of the castle is the extent of the carved wood paneling for walls and ceilings, and the individual furnishings, from a grand organ in the music room to gobelin tapestries in the hallways. The perspective of the mountains from Tarasp is one of the notable scenic views of the area. The old downtown of Scuol illustrates the style of house-building in the Engadine Valley. All the houses face the street, with a bay window to observe the comings and goings of people at the village well. The houses are small fortresses, self-contained, lodging animals at ground level, preserving a large entryway, and allowing set places for the living room, kitchen, pantry, and upstairs sleeping room. Each house stores within itself enough hay for its cattle during the winter. The house also had the capacity to hold all the animal manure of winter until it could be put out on the fields in spring. In the 19th century several of the old houses of Scuol were refurbished by their owners, families who often made their fortunes with sugar- baking operations they set up in other regions. Beyond the downtown, several trails lead directly from Scuol, including a cable car into the mountains. Include in your hiking itinerary a visit to the small historic town of Guarda, one of Switzerland’s most picturesque villages. The town’s 80 houses were rebuilt between 1630-1720 after the Hundred Years War devastated all the structures. Like the Scuol houses, Guarda houses are all built in the same manner. The most important feature is that they all face the street and all possess a discrete bay window that allows a view of comings and goings at the town well, both the water source and the center of social life and gossip in the era before indoor plumbing and television. The houses also exhibit an interesting decorative art form, called sgraffito, in which designs are scratched in the white lime plaster of the house as the plaster dries. Elaborate trompe l’oeil effects and ornate decorations around windows and doors can be seen. A spirited citizen with a good feel for the historic importance of the village gave me a guided tour. The restaurant in the Piz Buin Hotel offers regional specialties, such as white veal sausages and potatoes. Terraces around Garda once made the town self-sufficient for wheat, barley, and potatoes, as recently as 75 years ago, but now all the terraces have been given over to dairy farming. The level road between Guarda and the small village of Ardez is typical of the area’s excellent walks with appealing alpine vistas. The National Park, one of the main hiking areas near Scuol, was formed in 1914 to preserve one of the few remaining wild areas in the country. This is a prime walking area, with hikers carefully restricted to the marked trails. The National Park Visitor Center at Zernez is an excellent source for good maps, advice on hiking trails, and an appreciation of the geology, flora, and fauna. The Alps consist of relatively soft rock that erodes in huge tailings down the mountainsides. Spring wildflowers throughout the Alps are splendid in June, but flowering continues at high altitudes until snowfall in October. Marmots, large rodent animals, populate the Alps. All these features are well protected in the National Park, which is especially famous for its preservation of large herds of deer-family species.