Today is an prime example of what a cloudy day with rain in the forecast can provide to 2 travelers who are determined to have a fabulous time.

Shirley and I got dressed for rain even though the forecast said that it would not really rain until 2:00. Although we could not see the tops of the mountains, we headed off through Mürren and took a photo of two cute statues.

 

At the end of town we found the trail to Gimmelwald. The first part of the hike was on a asphalt but very pleasant.

I still love looking at the valley with the clouds hanging low.

The rock faces on the lower mountains were beautiful – especially with the snow dusting on them.

Shirley with her eagle eyes looked down into the field below and saw what we thought were a different breed of deer. It wasn’t until we saw more ibex back in Mürren near the Bahn and examined our photos from earlier that we realized we had seen more ibex.

We walked by some information boards. The first one was about avalanche guards. Then we passed one about Ogi-Bocke – Ogi mountings which I found interesting because I hadn’t seen them before.   These Three-leg Mountings are:

• Snow slide barriers
• Efficient in the starting area of avalanches
• Limited lifetime since they are built from wood

They plant young trees around them so they are only used where forests can grow. They help with the growth of the young trees and after 20-30 years, the trees take over the function of the barrier. The full-grown trees are, of course, the best barriers.

Here is a photo from the poster of what they look like in the winter.

These are the ones we saw today.

When we arrived at the outskirts of Gimmelwald, we passed the Honesty Shop. Of course I had to buy something so I found 3 tiny bamboo spoons.

We didn’t actually walk into Gimmelwald because the trail to Stechelberg was right there and that was just where we were headed. It was a downhill trail that we may have considered difficult before all of our other hikes but was actually quite easy for us.

There aren’t many flowers in September, but I noticed this beautiful one.

Walking through the valley floor was so peaceful.. The waterfalls were frequent and beautiful. I loved this double one.

We have seen so many of these water troughs in front of houses in several towns. They each have a faucets with running water. I found out that the water from the faucets is all drinkable.

Here is Shirley coming through the beautiful forest trail.

Shirley took a photo of me near a beautiful rock wall with moss on it.

We passed this sign that showed 2 ways to Stechelberg.  That was typical of signposts in Switzerland.

We decided to take the 25 minute route. Shirley said, The 40 minute one is probably easier, but when did we ever choose the easier route?

This beautiful waterfall seemed to be coming right out of the cliff.

I love the red rock in this close-up of it.

We kept passing waterfalls. Shirley told me that there are 72 waterfalls in the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

The tree trunk growing over the rocks was spectacular.

We arrived at Stechelberg and stopped for lunch at the Hotel Stechelberg Restaurant. While we were eating lunch I read this sentence in a brochure: “The sound of waterfalls is like music playing amidst the surrounding snowcapped peaks.” Although we weren’t seeing the snowcapped peaks, that quote describes my feelings today perfectly.

The Weisse Lüutchine flows right through Stechelberg.  I remember the name from the story about the 2 rivers. I so love these beautiful flowing rivers.

Just another view of the Weisse Lüutchine

We passed so many examples of the wood storage containers.

What an interesting place to grow tomatoes..

We could see across the valley to Wengen up on the hill..

Well, we had dressed for rain and it didn’t disappoint us. We could see it in the distance and we walked right into it.

We reached Trümmelbch Waterfalls. How can I ever find the words to describe this place. Trümmelbch Waterfalls is by far one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. There are 10 glacial waterfalls draining together within a mountain cavern. Trümmelbch alone drains the mighty glacier defiles of the Eiger (3970 M), Monch (4000 m), and Jungfrau (3158 m) with up to a 20,000 liters of water per second. These waterfalls carry 20,200 tons of boulder detritus per year. It’s drainage area is 24 km squared. It is the only glacier-waterfalls in Europe inside a mountain and still accessible. It is truly hard to believe that they built an elevator (which goes part way up), steps, and walkways right inside a mountain so we can view this incredible place. These photos just can’t do justice to what we experienced today.

Shirley and I took photos of each other.

I hope these couple of videos helps to hear the power of these waterfalls.

Video A

After this incredible experience, we still had a 45 minute walk to Lauterbrunnen. We passed this man feeding a calf that must have lost its mother.

The color of the grass in the valley was so green…

…and still another waterfall to view.

The rock faces on the way home were so beautiful.

We took the tram and train back up to Mürren. Much to our surprise, there was a small group of ibex eating grass in the field below the Bahn Hoff. Shirley read someplace that it was illegal to shoot any animal near a gondola, tram, or train.  This was the moment we realized that we had seen ibex – not deer – earlier in the day.

To top off our fabulous day, the clouds had lifted and the views from the widow in our room were spectacular. Of course I had to use the camera to zoom in on them.

This will certainly be a day never to be forgotten.