Wednesday the 17th, at the suggestion of our host Fritz from the Hotel Lötschberg in Interlaken, we set off for the Niederhorn by train and bus and cable car from Interlaken. The Niederhorn rises up sharply from the Thuner See (Lake Thun) on the east side of the lake just north of Interlaken. Whatever we might have been expecting, we found a whole lot more.
First off, Kacy was in geology heaven. The entire top of the mountain is literally covered with what she calls "critter rock" -- fossilized remains of the old seabed embedded into rock. Everywhere you looked, there were fossils. You could simply reach down and pick them up.
There's a gorgeous valley hidden away on the other side of what turns out to be a fairly narrow ridge. The ridge is so steep that at times you can't imagine what is holding trees and plants to the earth, rather than tumbling off into the valley.
We found the main trail was still entirely snow-covered -- at one point, Kacy rescued a mountain lizard from the snow -- and eventually decided discretion was the better part of valor. We retreated from the snow-covered trails (even the trail marker was down in the snow at one point) back to the cable car and took it down to the next highest stop. Then we hiked the rest of the way down, passing cows with the typical Swiss cow bells along the way.
But the main purpose of the trip was still completely served once we got out of the snow fields. What we had wanted to see were the Alpine wildflowers, and wildflowers we did indeed see, everywhere we looked. Blues and reds and yellows and whites. A field of snow crocuses blooming alongside blankets of snow. Entire hillsides dotted with color. It was wonderful. The major problem we had was that we didn't bring enough film and had to ration the shots!
We bought a book to identify the flowers we saw... but it'll be weeks before we figure out the names of all the flowers we were able to see close up and photograph. The ones I'm sure of included the trumpet gentian, the spring gentian, rock jasmine, alpine poppy and centaurea. And no, no edelweiss -- it blooms later in the year.
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Niederhornbahn
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Kacy's critter rock
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Hidden valley
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Tree on mountainside
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Mountain lizard
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Cow with bell
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The Wildflowers of Switzerland
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