Seealpsee adventure
El verano exige caminatas, bueno, siempre que el clima nos lo permita. No tuvimos muchos días soleados este verano, pero aun así intentamos aprovecharlo al máximo. ¡Tengo una buena colección de nuestras excursiones de un día que no puedo esperar para mostrarte! Hoy, comenzaremos con nuestro viaje a Seealpsee .
Seealpsee es un pintoresco lago escondido en las montañas del cantón Appenzell. Lo hemos visto durante nuestras caminatas anteriores en la zona, pero nunca logramos tomarnos el tiempo para ir allí. Es un gran punto de partida para muchas otras caminatas, pero para llegar allí primero debes conquistar casi 400 m de altitud, y déjame decirte que es difícil porque no es una caminata muy larga.
We woke up early as I read that it's a very popular place and was afraid that we wouldn't find a parking spot. We were lucky as there were still a few left but we arrived already at 9AM. I can't imagine how it looked like at lunchtime.
There are a few ways to get to the lake and we chose the longer trail from Wasserauen. It's starts very steep and it continues like this in the forest. But once you reach the top it flattens and becomes more of a relaxing walk. You can also take a shorter way from Wasserauen but it goes slightly up all the time which we thought would be more difficult. There is a paved road almost the whole way to Seealpsee which is not as exciting as an elevated trail in the forest.
After a few hundreds meters of hiking uphill we found a bench and ate our snacks. Not that we were so hungry, but we were barely catching our breath and needed to take a break. The view of the Appenzeller Alps was worth it. Here we can see Ebenalp (1640 m)
Nos despertamos temprano cuando leí que es un lugar muy popular y teníamos miedo de que no encontráramos un lugar para estacionar. Tuvimos suerte ya que todavía quedaban algunos pero ya llegamos a las 9 de la mañana. No puedo imaginar cómo se veía a la hora del almuerzo.
Hay algunas formas de llegar al lago y elegimos el sendero más largo desde Wasserauen . Comienza muy empinado y continúa así en el bosque. Pero una vez que llegas a la cima, se aplana y se convierte en un paseo más relajante. También puede tomar un camino más corto desde Wasserauen, pero sube un poco todo el tiempo, lo que pensamos que sería más difícil. Hay un camino pavimentado casi todo el camino a Seealpsee, que no es tan emocionante como un sendero elevado en el bosque.
Después de unos cientos de metros de caminata cuesta arriba, encontramos un banco y comimos nuestros bocadillos. No es que tuviéramos tanta hambre, pero apenas estábamos recuperando el aliento y necesitábamos tomar un descanso. La vista de los Alpes Appenzell valió la pena. Aquí podemos ver Ebenalp (1640 m)
Luego continuamos subiendo la colina. Ni siquiera sé cuánto tiempo nos tomó levantarnos, pero sí recuerdo lo feliz que estaba cuando finalmente llegamos a la cima. De repente, los árboles se aclararon hasta convertirse en una increíble meseta con vacas por todas partes.
No habíamos estado en una caminata con tanta gente antes, y me sorprendió darme cuenta de que no me molestaba no tener las montañas solo para nosotros (suena tonto, lo sé). De hecho, fue alentador ver a otras personas dar lo mejor de sí y compartir nuestro dolor. Sin embargo, es curioso que no puedas ver a ninguna persona en las fotos, pero aquí y allá puedes ver una vaca o dos.
Then we continued up the hill. I don't even know how long it took us to get up but I do remember how happy I was when we finally reached the top. Suddenly, the trees cleared to an incredible plateau with cows everywhere.
We haven't been on a hike with so many people before, and I was surprised to realize that it didn't bother me not to have the mountains only for ourselves (it sounds silly, I know). It was actually encouraging to see other people giving their best and share our pain. Funny though, that you can't see any people on the pictures but here and there you can spot a cow or two.
Estábamos rodeados de tantos picos que ni siquiera sabíamos en qué dirección mirar primero. También hemos notado que la región de Alpstein tiene una estructura específica que no habíamos visto antes en los Alpes. Parece un paraíso para los escaladores.
We were surrounded by so many peaks that we didn't even know which way to look first. We have also noticed that the Alpstein region has specific structure that we haven't seen before in the Alps. It looks like a climber paradise.
El paisaje al otro lado de nuestro sendero era completamente diferente. Más tarde, nos dimos cuenta de que aquí es donde caminaríamos de regreso al valle.
The landscape on the other side of our trail was completely different. Later, we realized that this is where we would walk back to the valley.
Tuvimos suerte con el clima. Era un día caluroso pero teníamos algo de viento, así que fue muy agradable. Las nubes se movían rápido y fue fascinante ver qué tan rápido cambiaba nuestra vista. Afortunadamente, no llovió en absoluto.
We were lucky with the weather. It was a hot day but we had some wind, so it was very pleasant. The clouds were moving fast, and it was fascinating to see how fast was our view changing. Luckily, it didn't rain at all.
¡En algún lugar de la parte de atrás está nuestro destino!
Somewhere there in the back is our destination!
This part of the hike was my favorite. There were plenty of these pyramid like rock formations...
Looking back at where we came from..
Almost there - we couldn't see it yet but asked some people coming from that direction how far it was, and they told us that it's just there, hidden behind that hill.
Aren't they perfect?
Here we go! Let's have a closer look.
The lake is at elevation of 1,143.2 m and it's max depth is 15 meters. Right in front of us is our beloved Säntis which we couldn't see because of the clouds.
Once you arrive at Seealpse, there are lots of different activities to do and places to visit there. You can sit down and enjoy the atmosphere, have a picnic, do a barbecue, take a rowboat, have a delicious meal at one of a several restaurants, or even go for a swim! Water is ice cold but we saw a few people who were brave enough to enjoy a quick dip.
We decided to enjoy the moment and sat down on the ground for some time. When it was getting late and it looked like a thunderstorm was coming, we walked around the lake, had a ginger beer from the region, and hiked back to Wasserauen.
The drive back home was challenging as we were both tired but we managed to keep each other company and arrived safely. We did a lot of singing
We had a great time and I'm sure that we will come back to explore the Alpstein region even more!
Thank you for reading.
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