Lenzerheide: Hiking and biking with a mountain panorama

The three of us took the train and bus, com­plete with our bikes and lug­gage, to Val­bel­la-Lenz­er­hei­de Youth Hos­tel. In prepa­ra­tion, we con­ve­nient­ly arranged the oblig­a­tory bike reser­va­tion for the route from Zurich main sta­tion to Chur and from Chur to Val­bel­la Dorf via the SBB app. That meant we could embark on our jour­ney with­out too many wor­ries. We used the train ride to chat and catch up.

Arriving at Valbella-Lenzerheide Youth Hostel

Before din­ner, we had to ride up to the youth hos­tel (5 min­utes from the Val­bel­la Dorf stop). Once there, we were able to check into our room and park our bikes in the bike cel­lar. Then it was time for din­ner; we were hun­gry and were already look­ing for­ward to a tasty 3‑course menu from the youth hos­tel. Before we start­ed our main course – rice and cur­ry – we dug into the sal­ad buf­fet. For dessert, we had a deli­cious vanil­la cream.

After din­ner, we decid­ed to explore the bike hos­tel. We mar­velled at the oth­er bikes in the large bike cel­lar, while a pin­ball machine, table foot­ball and table ten­nis were wait­ing for us in the recre­ation room. There was a com­mon room with a couch and even a TV, and behind the din­ing room was anoth­er room with lots of toys and games for younger chil­dren and a large book­case, mak­ing it the per­fect spot to linger for a bit. After explor­ing, we planned the next day and then it was prac­ti­cal­ly time to go to bed.

Sat­ur­day morn­ing got off to a relaxed start with a deli­cious break­fast buf­fet. There was still snow on the moun­tain peaks, so the evening before, we decid­ed on two low­er-lying tours, which we want­ed to com­bine.

Val Meltger Suspension Bridge Trail

We took the bus to Lantsch/Lenz and then head­ed out on the Sus­pen­sion Bridge Trail. First through the vil­lage, then under a ski lift, and before long we were climb­ing a steep path up the moun­tain. At the same time, we were also fol­low­ing an edu­ca­tion­al trail with lit­tle tree-relat­ed chal­lenges along the way. Just before the sus­pen­sion bridge there was a nice pic­nic spot with a pic­nic table, rub­bish bin and a small bar­be­cue area. We took a short mid-morn­ing break and con­tin­ued on our way. The sus­pen­sion bridge fol­lowed around the cor­ner: It was larg­er than we expect­ed.

We crossed the sus­pen­sion bridge and car­ried on cheer­ful­ly until at some point we passed a camp­site and were back on the main road. Then we con­tin­ued past the grav­el works in Gravas, head­ing for the next trail. It was already after 12 o’clock and we were start­ing to get hun­gry. We hoped for a bench, but no such luck. So we sat down on the grass and enjoyed the youth hostel’s packed lunch that includ­ed a sand­wich, an apple and a bar.

Towards the waterfall

Recharged, we head­ed towards Alp Sanas­pans along the Schar­moin Panora­ma Trail, turn­ing left short­ly before­hand towards the Sanas­pans Water­fall. We could already hear it thun­der­ing on our way up, but it still couldn’t be seen from the Lantsch side. We then descend­ed over the moun­tain riv­er until we turned left right before the bar­be­cue spot. Just around the cor­ner, our efforts were reward­ed with a spec­tac­u­lar view of the water­fall.

After a well-earned break, we left the water­fall and made our way to the Rothorn val­ley sta­tion, where we want­ed to buy our moun­tain rail­way tick­ets for the next day. In the morn­ing we had packed our swimwear, but decid­ed to skip the swim in the lake due to the weath­er, mak­ing our way back to the youth hos­tel instead. Once there, we enjoyed an ice cream on the com­fort­able wood­en deckchairs. Just in time for din­ner, we were also able to wel­come Flo­ri­an, who would be join­ing us on our bike ride the next day. After some tasty spaghet­ti, we round­ed off the evening on the out­door couch in front of the youth hos­tel.

Flow trails with mountain panoramas

On Sun­day morn­ing, we had to drag our­selves out of our warm beds bright and ear­ly. After all, we were all real­ly look­ing for­ward to the day bik­ing. Fuelled by the break­fast buf­fet, we picked up our bikes from the bike cel­lar and set off towards Tgantieni. There, we took the three-seater chair­lifts up to Piz Scalot­tas.

From there, we set off on the Biket­ick­et to ride red trail, which leads back to the Scalot­tas lift. Anoth­er option is to start with the Biket­ick­et to ride blue trail and then take the Alpine Route tour back to Scalot­tas. We decid­ed to try out that option as well. It was less rocky than the pre­vi­ous trail, but just as much fun.

Time flew by, and we soon found our­selves at the Alphüt­ta Fops alp hut, where we enjoyed a deli­cious alp plat­ter and a lemon balm cor­dial. For dessert, every­one had a piece of Engadin nut cake.

Downhill filled with adrenaline

From there, we head­ed back to Piz Scalot­tas. This time, we didn’t go straight down: We want­ed to ride on to Chur­walden and let off some steam. We rode the beau­ti­ful Bram­brüsch – Pradaschi­er Trail, which pass­es by the Proschieri T‑bar lift. On our next descent, we ven­tured onto the Wet­ter­wichtel­weg, which even­tu­al­ly turned into a dif­fi­cult bike trail con­tain­ing steep pas­sages and hair­pin bends.

Once we had made it back down safe­ly, we agreed that that was cool once a day, but no more than that. So we tack­led the pre­vi­ous trail again and were on time for the last gon­do­la in Chur­walden. From the moun­tain sta­tion of the Panoram­abahn, we were now able to ride all the way down to the youth hos­tel. Cov­ered in mud after a day of bik­ing, our bikes got a good clean­ing at the bicy­cle wash­ing sta­tion so that we could start our jour­ney home by pub­lic trans­port with clean bikes.