Gallery: June 27 — Urnäsch to Schwägalp

Shots from a hike from the town of Urnäsch up to the Schwägalp pass, which connects Appenzell to the Toggenburg region and is also linked by cablecar to the imposing peak of Säntis.

This is actually a house near Appenzell station, with quite the trim colors.

Urnäsch: peachy.

Gasthaus-Metzgerei Taube (Dove Inn/Butcher-Shop)! Nice.

Farmhouse along the trail just outside town.

This tree got a little too stout for its own good, I guess.

Big ol' engine of some sort on display by the trail.

Kindling.

House being renovated. Note the especially large windwall on the south side.

Here's an area of wall that would usually be covered up; it looks like the projecting beams might have been cut back flush with the wall, but I'm not sure.

The Swiss have all kinds of awesome tiny earth-moving equipment.

Another example.

Lunch spot.

Curious rock configuration — given the electric fence running along it, I guess maybe it's manmade (a long time ago), but it's hard to tell.

Warm cows! (It should read "Küche" — you can actually see the ghost of the "c" there still.)

This hotel is called the Rossfall (Horsefall) because a horse fell into a nearby falls a long time ago. I forget the rest of the story.

Topogoats; topocows.

There was this whole ravine area full of ruddy Nagelfluh.

More ravine.

Precipitous farm.

Stone wall — this is in an area of high seasonal farming settlements (an Alp).

Here's some goofball eating an apple on the trail. (What is that white thing just up the trail?)

If you look closely you can see that this whole hillside is cow-terraced.

Two cablecars passing each other on the way up to/down from Säntis.

Bravura brickery, back in Urnäsch, I think.

Haze crepuscules.