A major reason for traveling to this region in Switzerland is so I could check Oeschinen Lake off of my bucket list. It's one of those places that has blown up on Social Media but for good reason and I wanted to see it for myself. It was so spectacular that I decided to give it a post of it's own...especially since I took 100,000 photos.
The night before, when I'd driven into the valley, the mountains and glaciers were just stunning and I was so excited to find that that's where the lake was and that I'd be able to get up close and personal.
I got up early, had breakfast, and took the first gondola of the day up the mountain. From there, it's a bit of a hike up to the lake itself and then various trails branch off in different directions.
 |
| This is kind of random, but check out that fold in the peak in the upper right...so cool! |
I knew about a trail that I wanted to take around to the far side of the lake and then, obviously, the panoramic trail but I wasn't sure which trail was which so I just guessed and my guess was correct! I hung left around the rim of the lake and up to the cliffs towering behind it.
As I wrapped around the lake, I spotted the groove in the towering cliff that was basically a via ferrata and knew that I was on the right track! There were maybe 5 other people on this trail and it got VERY sketchy with VERY steep drop-offs, but there was a cable drilled into the rock to hold onto so that made it much easier.
I reached the edge of the cliff and then turned back the way I came to begin looking around for the panoramic trail.
After completing that route, I looked around for the panoramic trail where all of the famous views are taken in from and saw tiny dots about 1000 feet up on the cliffside and figured that was the trail. It was quite a climb to get up there but it was spectacular and soooo worth it.
