June or July Hiking in Switzerland

Your time frame is not too early for snow-free hiking, and good for wildflowers. But the weather may be a bit unsettled. Of our 6 trips to Switzerland for hiking, only one has been in the late June-early July timeframe, specifically June 22 July 8 Coincidentally, on that trip we visited Luzern (actually staying up on Rigi), Wengen, Muerren, and Zermatt.

We arrived at Rigi Kaltbad on a gloomy, dreary day, with no views from the top and wet trails around Rigi Kaltbad. Then just before sunset the fog went away and blue sky appeared above us, but we were looking out over a sea of clouds. The next morning those were gone, and we saw the Lake spread out below us. It was gorgeous.

We spent the next 6 days in Wengen and then Muerren, with the weather alternating daily between beautiful sunshine and light rain. We did the Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg hike on one of the sunny days, and we did see wildflowers there, including my favorite, the little blue Enzian.

We traveled to Zermatt on another drippy, dreary day, and walked through the village to the far end for our apartment in the rain. The next day the rain turned to snow as we hiked up to Riffelberg, but it did not stick on the trail. The next day starded out cloudy but not rainy, and by mid-afternoon the clouds began to clear. By evening we had a full-on view of the Matterhorn from our balcony. And the next 2 days were beautiful. But there were not yet many wildflowers at the higher elevations.

Thanks Lola. Can you tell me what year your June-July trip was? We're also wondering if climate change is having a major affect on Switzerland weather patterns. Attempting to have great weather without huge crowds. That's why we were thinking earlier in the season would be better.

We've been 4 times in late June and July. The only trail we've had not be open is the ridge hike between first and Schnygge Platte which is quite strenuous. The hike from Mannlichen to Klein Schiedegg is wonderful, fairly level and relatively easy. The hike down to Murren from Almenhubel is another fairly easy hike. Also the walk from Murren to Gimmelwald is nice. My experience was that the wildflowers were much nicer on the Murren side of the valley.

That trip was 2007 and yes, I believe that climate change has altered weather patterns since then.

We did not return to Switzerland until 2018, with our son and his family (twin grandchildren). We went in early August, arriving in the middle of a heatwave all over that part of Europe. It did not bother us too much at the elevation of Muerren, but on our way there we experienced a lot of heat in Amsterdam, and Freiburg. The heatwave ended 2 days after we left Muerren for Chamonix to start hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc (our son’s family went home). The earth’s fever broke with a boom—-literally. A huge thunderstorm with torrents of rain that caused mudslides and rockfall in the Alps, including one the Tour du Mont Blanc trail we were due to hike 2 days later. Fortunately we were with a guided group, and our guides were able to work out a shuttle transfer past the blocked point on the trail.

We did not see many wildflowers on that August trip; even in the little alpine botanical garden above Muerren most of the flowers were spent and dry. It may have been because of the heatwave. Or maybe even in a more normal year the cows have grazed them out of all the meadows. But I did see, in two separate places, a flower I had never seen before or even heard of, the mahogany-red Gentiana purpurea.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/349697-Gentiana-purpurea

The first few were along the North Face trail above Muerren, in an area that fences out the cows. We saw many more, a field full of them, in a meadow we traversed on a high trail on the Tour du Mont Blanc in Italy. This must have been cow-free meadow, as it was very lush and green.

This is now my favorite wildflower, and I wanted to make our next trip to Switzerland in early August to see them again. I knew My son and his family, especially the twins, were hoping to return to Switzerland, so I proposed the trip for August 2023. My daughter-in-law said they would love to go, but not in August, due to heat and crowds. She suggested late September, which meant taking the twins out of school for 2 weeks, but that was fine. For the 2 weeks we were in Switzerland (Muerren again, and Weggis near Luzern) and the Dolomites, we had one day with intermittent rain. The rest of the time the weather was perfect. But we saw no wildflowers at all.

The past few summers, at least, it seems Europe has been hit with either extreme heat, or excessive rains and flooding, or both.

Schynige Platte has loops around the train station that are not difficult and take 1-3 hours. One is specifically for viewing flowers. Great train ride too. I think these may be in your travel window; Schnitzlerweg, Iseltwald to the Giessbach waterfalls and Stoos Ridge. There are plenty of videos available to get see if they are for you. First Cliff Walk and Lake Bachalpsee will be next to snow capped mountains. The zipline down to the Schreckfeld station was nice.

In the Jungfrau Region they mow the alpine fields for hay for the cows by the beginning of August, so if wildflowers are important to you you’ll have a higher probability in late June/early July, although I do see wildflowers on the Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg Panorama Walk even in August. I think you should be fine in late June/early July but the later you push it back the better chance of nicer weather you have. If you’re talking about going this year you’ll want to be getting lodging ASAP.