Engelberg

On the last Saturday in September, we took one last mountain hike of the season in Engelberg.  Engelberg is a mountain resort town just south of Lake Luzern.  It sits in a valley with two popular mountain ranges on either side of it.  I had heard it was a really pretty place from friends and so I had wanted to go.  The morning we arrived just happen to be the day the cows were coming back from their alpine summer pastures to the barns in valleys.  The cows are dressed up and have to wear even bigger bells than usual and are marched through the mountain towns.  It is a nice Swiss tradition, but I cannot figure out the official name of the holiday (every source calls it something different).  Anyways, I was happy to see my cows!

Farmers with their traditional outfits and huge cow bells

The cows all decorated for their parade

After seeing the small parade in the town, we took a cable car and a chair lift up the mountains on the north side of Engelberg.  These mountains only get to a height of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, while the mountains south of Engelberg are dominated by the 10,000-foot mountain and glacier called Titlis.

The view of the valle Engelberg sits in

Riding the chair lift up the mountain

The view at the top of the chair lift

At the top of the chair lift is a fun family area with a tiny lake, a little river, picnic tables, and an interesting thing called a tickle trail.  The idea is that you take off your shoes and socks and walk along the course around the lake that has different surfaces.  They have different kinds of rocks, wood, cement, mud, etc. to walk on.  Kids and adults love it.  We forgot to take a picture of it, so I'm borrowing this picture below from my friend's blog.  Anyways, I enjoyed watching people do it while we ate our lunch on the picnic tables.

 A picture of the fun activities on the mountains in Engelberg (picture not taken by us)

After our lunch, we walked along the mountain side for a while and made our way down to the cable car, skipping the chair lift.

Partial view of Titlis on the right in this picture

Me in Engelberg

Darren on our hike in Engelberg

Darren making friends with his own favorite animals

Trying to pet the cows who were not having it, they would just walk away from me

Beautiful mountain barn along the hike

Taking the cable car back down to the town of Engelberg

I enjoyed going here, though Rigi and Jungfrau are still my favorite mountains.  It was a fun last hiking activity of the season, though.  Oh Swiss mountains, we are going to miss you!