Trummelbach Falls And Beyond

The weather turned wet. It can really rain in the Alps. All-day down-pours. All-night too. So what does the enterprising tourist do in such circumstances? Right! Go see waterfalls! And in Lauterbrunnen Valley, they even have indoor waterfalls, namely, Trummelbach Falls, a 10-cascade extravaganza that occurs inside the mountain.

Thus; it's a major tour bus stop, but we did it in '89 with the
girls, and, what the hey, it was really raining outside

First, you ride up a couple hundred feet in the indoor
funicular

That's to cascade #6; then you hike up to cascade #10, and
then work your way down

Fortunately, it's all illuminated on the inside

Thus

And thus

And thus

It's pretty cool, actually; and wet; anyhow, here, after the
Trummelbach experience, we had one of those really
singular experiences on trips such as ours: some folks from
Billings, Montana, were walking by, noticed our Montana
license plates, did a more-than-usual double-take, and then
talked with Vicki at length about what we were doing, what
they were doing, etc. Nice folks (I was still up the mountain);
above, looking from Trummelbach back down the
Lauterbrunnen Valley

Anyhow, the falls are inside that mountain

It had been raining heavily for hours, and, in a place like
Lauterbrunnen Valley, that means all sort of "new"
waterfalls show up where none had been the day before

And existing falls become real gushers

We proceeded on, up and over Grimsel Pass; here we are
parked at a lake at the top of the pass, watching these
insane fisherpersons; it is 42 degrees outside, wintry mix,
gale winds, and they are fishing; they finally left while we
were there and had a sizable basket full of fish

A bit of Grimsel Pass coming down, and Furka Pass going up
the other canyon; I think we did Furka a couple years ago

Hinterlauterbrunnental Flora

I am not a flower person. I can recognize only three alpine flowers: rhododendron, blue gentian (if it's blue), and edelweiss (which causes me to start humming tunes from The Sound of Music.) They're pretty much all in bloom now, mid-summer, even the rhodos in the higher elevations. They starred in our upper Lauterbrunnen hike, that is, until the myrtilles appeared. Here are a few...

OK, Fireweed makes four

Hiking the Hinter Lauterbrunnen Valley

The upper part of the Lauterbrunnen valley has been turned into a preserve, both natural and cultural, and we decided the next day to hike a bit of it, to see a few of the 72 water falls.

Billboard map of the place

Rustic chalet with solar power

A few of the waterfalls

Bain of alpine hikers; and cows

Although the scenery was beautiful, the trail good, the
wildflowers abundant and gorgeous, this hike turned out
to be more about berries than anything else; here, the
first of the explosively delicious wild strawberries

More waterfalls

Thus

Part of the smelter of a late medieval silver mine

But then we ran into one of the largest deposits ever of
blueberries/myrtilles/huckleberries/bilberries, whatever; no
human or ursine competition; end of hike

We bagged enough for dessert, breakfast, and then some;
we never hike without plastic bags

It's a beautiful trail, well cared for by Tourism Stechelberg

And Vicki's knee is holding up well, despite
the weight of the berries

Gimmelwald

Vicki's new knee has been doing fine in all the city walking we have been doing, but it was time to try it on the trail in a more rough and vertical environment. So we decided to hike from the valley up to Gimmelwald, on the cliffs above, capital of the Rickie Stevie League of Cities, but also the site of pleasant other memories for us.

Vicki on the trail

Heading up the trail

Looking across the valley toward the big
mountains

Achtung! Falling stones!

A glacier spilling over from one of the big mountains

Finally we reach the outskirts of Gimmelwald

Thus

Looking down to the campground and Stechelberg; not to
over-do it, we took the cable car back down

Back in the valley, looking up

Return to Lauterbrunnen

Our stay in Lauterbrunnen two years ago was marred by a lousy campground, Camping Schutzenbach or somesuch, and we moved on to Grindelwald. But before moving, Vicki had taken a hike to the end of the road and noticed another campground, Camping Rutti, in Stechelberg, which we decided to try this time. It was a good choice.

Our site at Camping Rutti

Valley view

Ditto; not the Staubbach, but pretty good

At the campground, a cruciform tent! Is it facing east?!

Mountains!

We left Basel thus edified and drove to a stellplatz that turned out to be free parking in an RV sales and service center lot down the road toward Bern. The next morning we proceeded on south, and, topping a small hill, beheld

The Berner Alps...Eiger, Monch, Jungfrau, etc. 

Thus the museum phase of our summer trip ends, and the mountain phase begins