Bishorn from the (private) road up the Turtmanntal

The hike to from the end of the public road to the Turtmannhütte isn't a very long one. Even when taking it easy, it won't take all that much more than two hours. From the end of the public road (1901m) there are several routes to chose from. The easiest one is to follow the (now private) road on the west side of the Turtmänna river to the Turtmann lakes at almost 2200 m, and then continue on one of the steep hiking trails to the hut (2519m). A fine alternative from the end of the public road is a strenous but very scenic hiking trail that starts by roughly following the east bank of the Turtmänna river and then leads to a dramatic river crossing over a huge, wedged boulder high above a gorge, after which it soon reaches the private road again, about half way to the lakes. That's where this photo was taken. The third option is the Holustei trail. It starts out as the previous one, but instead of crossing the river, it keeps to the slopes to the east, going up and down and generally staying further away from the river, but eventually it also leads to the lakes. It takes a bit longer than the other two trails. The best part about it is that it avoids the road altogether. In 2014, I ended up descending along the road, after having ascended the more scenic alternative. A couple of years earlier, back in 2012, I had already hiked down most of the Holustei trail. 3 July 2014.