Alps Day 1

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Alps Ride

Alps Ride We woke this morning nice and dry. All of the rains from the stormy night stay out of the tent. We ate a quick breakfast, showered and started up for the mountains. The drive to flims, where the trailheads are, was a short half hour drive from the campsite.

When we reached Flims, I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was just a village located in the Alps with trail signs everywhere. I guess I was expecting some sort of a National Park atmosphere, with Park Rangers and such. We found a parking spot and wondered down to the trailhead. Our first hike was down to Lake Falera. This hike was about 8 km from our car to the lake. The lake had restaurants and beach areas all around it. The water was crystal clear. We spent about an hour walking around the lake and started for the steep hike back up to the road. As we headed back to the trail, we found a pleasant surprise: there was an elevator that took you back to the top. Now that’s my type of hiking!

When reaching the top, we headed for our next adventure. We purchases some lift tickets for 12 francs each and headed to the top of the mountain. This area is very popular during the ski season, but it was nearly empty during our off-season weekday. After reaching the top, we were able to rent these tall scooters that made the descent a little more exciting. The normal downhill trip would have only taken 10 minutes, but we took side trails to make sure we got our moneys worth out of the rental. We returned the scooters and headed back to the car.

We still had plan of day left, since the sun doesn’t set until 930. We set off to see the rest of the sites in the area. These included old churches, 3000-year-old cult sites, and castle ruins. This whole area was great. There were small villages every tucked into the hillsides. And of course, there were cows grazing the mountains and yes they all had cow bells. The bells sounded like wind chimes.

Back at camp, we cooked dinner and hit the sack. No rain, but it was cold and windy.
Check out the pictures and movie.

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Photos

Alps
Nice View

Flims
The village of Flims

Lake
This is the lake we hike to.

Only You
Only you can prevent forest fires!

Elevator
Now this is the way to hike!

Old Church
Church is 600 years old

Swiss Cow
One of the many cows with bells

Swiss Goat
The goats have bells to

Chur Campsite
Home sweet home. There was a nice river right behind the trees

Comments

[H-thorn]

I think it's Friday there now. I expect to see some power boozing. L8r H-thorn

[Mo BakeyBasile]

Beautiful!
Cool lake and I love the hiking elevator! what beautiful country!

[Cheech]

Cool but....
Cant wait for the "trip" report for Amsterdam!!