A couple of weeks ago I was searching for an easy forest hike somewhere in the canton of Graubünden as my favorite trails are there and it's not that far away from where we live. This is how I came across Pizalun.
The 7 km long trail with an elevation gain of less than 500 meters was exactly what I was searching for. It should be completed within 2.5 hours, but I knew that it will take us much longer as we planned to take a lot of photos and have a picnic in the forest.
Although Pizalun (1478 m) is one of the smallest mountains in the canton of Graubünden, it offers spectacular 360 degrees view of the Chur Rhine valley, Sargans region, the mountains of the Rätikon, the Pizol group, the Calanda massif and the Churfirsten-Alvier group.
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
The trail starts in St. Margrethenberg - a popular winter sports region close to Bad Ragaz. It says on internet that it starts directly from the parking area, but we couldn't find the signs. We checked the google maps and it turned out that the trails starts on the other side of the village! Well, at least we found it.
Let's walk!
ISO 100 1/250 sec. f/8 26 mm
As soon as we reached the trail, we were greeted by a couple of cows 😊 I should be honest here and say that they rather ignored us though. They were too busy with their lunch.
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
After a short steep climb we got to see St. Margrethenberg behind us. It's situated in such picturesque landscape...
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
The path led us through woods and meadows..
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 29 mm
Behind this meadow there was the most challenging part of the trail - a steep and long climb through the forest. The summit was behind the trees so we couldn't see it and we didn't know how long we would have to climb. There were a few people coming back from the summit looking refreshed and happy while we were breathing hard and sweating. At that time I realized that in the afternoon it will be me who will walk down and I was feeling instantly better 😊
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 26 mm
We made it!
The summit can be reached by a metal staircase. There is an observation platform on the top so let's have a look!
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
The stairway is very narrow and only one person fits there but as there was no one coming I had enough time to take a photo on the way up..
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
We are here!
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
Now it's time to enjoy the views...
Right in front of us is the Callanda massiv.
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
On the right side there are mountains of the Rätikon.
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
Further to the right...
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
Now we are looking in the direction of the Appenzell Alps, north of Sargans.
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
There are signs with panorama views of the mountains and their names on each side of the platform. There are so many summits visible from here that I didn't even try to remember some of them.
Now it's time to have a picnic on the way back...
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
We didn't want to take the same path back to the village so we decided to take a longer path which would lead us around the mountain and then back on the other side..
We came across a couple of wooden houses and we walked through beautiful meadows.
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
Until we came to this bench (there was no other bench up until this moment) where we could finally eat our lunch. I know, I should have taken a photo of our food but I was too hungry to think about such details 😊
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
We rested for half an hour and continued on the path... On this side of the mountain there were more meadows than woods which was good for our vitamin D intake...
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 29 mm
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
After some time we reached an asphalt road which led us directly to the village. Overall, we walked almost 10 km instead of 7 km but we didn't mind as the weather was pleasant, we had a lot of fun, took way too many photos and had full bellies 😊
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 29 mm
And here are some flowers that I came across...
ISO 100 1/800 sec. f/3.5 48 mm
ISO 100 1/800 sec. f/3.5 65 mm
ISO 100 1/800 sec. f/3.5 48 mm
ISO 100 1/800 sec. f/3.5 60 mm
ISO 100 1/800 sec. f/3.5 62 mm
No matter what I did they just didn't pay the slightest attention to me 😊
ISO 100 1/125 sec. f/7.1 45 mm
I hope that you enjoyed our walk today!
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina
First, there is NO WAY that I would've climbed up that little metal ladder... So you are for sure way braver than me.
Second, that is quite the beautiful hike. I finally realized what is different in your area than mine. We have lots of underbrush and weeds in our forests. Your pics show none. Its like Monsanto sprayed Roundup all over the Alps and nothing but big trees and green grass. (maybe some side effects, but hey its pretty!!!) :P
Another awesome post though Martina, I really really enjoy them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hahaha, I've tried more difficult things in my life :) In 2 weeks I'm gonna do a tandem jump from 4000 m (not my idea). So when I survive that I can do anything :D
I had to google Monsanto to understand the joke, lol. If you talk about that.. I remember seeing a lot of bushes and weeds in the South (Spain, Italy). We don't really have it in Central Europe.
I'm still waiting for a post from your hill/mountain :)
Have a good Tuesday!
It's always a pleasure to see your photo essays of the beautiful countryside in the areas of Europe I had become most familiar with many years ago.
As a young NYC born and raised kid, I was spellbound by the majestic landscape of the Alps on the first morning I awoke, having arrived there in the darkness of night.
The little cloud floating across the road at a short distance from me was a bit confusing...like a ghostly puff-ball...I'd always thought that all clouds hung out much higher in the sky :>)
Hahaha, I can imagine that it was confusing. It's so different to New York! It happens regularly that we drive through clouds. I find it a bit scary though as I realize how high we can go by car..
It must have been a shock to wake up in the morning and see all those mountains around you. It happens to me as well when I travel during night and it takes me some time in the morning to realize where I actually am :D
Pleasure is mine.. I love comments like yours :)
:>)
great contribution and fantastic pictures real class, thanks for sharing :)
Congratulations! Your high-quality travel content was selected by @travelfeed curator @elsaenroute and earned you a reward, in form of a 100% upvote and a resteem. Your work really stands out! Your article now has a chance to get featured under the appropriate daily topic on our TravelFeed blog.
Thank you for being part of the TravelFeed community!
Learn more about our travel project by clicking on the banner above and join our community on Discord
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #590.
Your post has been manually curated by the @steemitworldmap team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider upvoting and supporting us.
100 Snax tokens will be in your wallet by next Monday courtesy of @crowdmind. Learn More
That is pretty. It would be fun (and probably dangerous) to stumble up into the mountains a couple hours before sunrise to catch the first rays streaming through the mountain peaks. Those rock formations are pretty, but that staircase looks a little scary.
Fun photos with the cows, too! Those are some pretty ones. ...well, as far as cows go!
I've heard that many people do that in the Alps. You can get amazing shots like that. But honestly I am too lazy to wake up this early in the morning and moreover I would have to stay there overnight as it's quite far away from home but you are right, that would be fun.
Cows are beautiful animals. I really like them :)
Spectacular indeed! Breathtaking captures :)
Dakujem!
Spectacular views from up there, congratulations! I can see the turquoise waters of the Rhine in the valley, there is so much beauty in your photos.
I find it strange to see how artificial Rhine looks there. I think that the watercourse is man made there. It's just so straight and unnatural. Very different to where we live but you know that as you were here already :)
I loved this post!
I'm happy to hear that! :)
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=delishtreats
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=pizalun-mountain-with-the-most-spectacular-views
Want to have your post on the map too?
it was so good to see this post amazing shots
Thank you!
Geil geil geil! Sehr tolle Fotos ! Sind in 3 Tagen auch da unten :-) einmal quer mitm Cabrio durch die Serpentinen der Alpen. Deine Fotos erhöhen schon meine Vorfreude 😀 Danke!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Cool! It's easier for me to write in English so sorry for that :) Have you been there before? I'm sure you will love it! And Cabrio is the best for such trip :)
So beautiful! You made me wanna go travel!
What's holding you back? :)
That ladder looks something I want to try 😁.
What a breathtaking views! I wouldn't mind taking my time just so I can enjoy the view. It's nice that there are different trails so you get different views.
For all the cows and flowers know, that is their territory so they can just ignore you like that 😅
Posted using Partiko Android
It's not that bad :) I've seen and tried more difficult things before :)
Exactly! I usually try to go back via another path to get some different impressions of the landscape. It's very impressive.
Yeah, that's right. When they eat they forget the world :)
Thank you for your contribution to the crowd. We are the Steem community project dedicated to empowering The Wisdom of Crowds. You can find more about us on our official website or whitepaper and you can support us by voting for our witness and joining our curation trail on Steemauto . We are also inviting you to join Crowdmind Discord server. Don't forget to use the #crowdmind hashtag and happy crowdsourcing!
Martina, wow what a beautiful place and what better way to get vitamin D. It is great that we were both featured on the Steemitworldmap together! :)
I didn't have time to check it out yet so thank you for telling me :) yes, it's great! Congratulations :)
You got a 51.43% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @delishtreats! :)
@ocdb is a non-profit bidbot for whitelisted Steemians, current max bid is 20 SBD and the equivalent amount in STEEM.
Check our website https://thegoodwhales.io/ for the whitelist, queue and delegation info. Join our Discord channel for more information.
If you like what @ocd does, consider voting for ocd-witness through SteemConnect or on the Steemit Witnesses page. :)
Absolutely breathtaking!!! I love those two cows, they look so free and happy there. Stunning shots Martina 🌸💖🌸
As happy as cows living on a farm can get.. on one side I'm always glad to see that they seem to be ok but on the other hand it still makes me sad because I know how they'll end up..
Thank you for your kind words, dear Lena!
I was thinking the same thing Martina! I just tried not to sound negative. I know you are vegan so I know we are on the same page. At least you captured their happy moment 💖
Spectacular indeed @delishtreats! We have a similar metal ladder here in the South African mountains, but it isn't as fixed as this one. It's a rung ladder that is held in place by metal spikes every couple metres. You can imagine at that height there is a fair amount of wind and scaling that ladder is more than a little nerve wracking! But the view from the plateau is stunninb
Wow what a fantastic walk! The views are so beautiful, all of them going up and down, and then at the top the views are spectacular and stunning! Breathtaking is more of a better description!
You were up 1,478 meters high? Does it get hard to breath when you are hiking by the time you get to the top, because of the altitude? Because when you look down into the valley it seems like you are very high up!