Today's post and hike is once again located in the town of Zermatt. As you can probably tell from the amount of hiking I did in Zermatt that it is a very special and amazing location for hiking. Today's hike is one that I have a little regret as I was not able to go as far as I would have liked due to time restraints. On the morning of my last day in Zermatt, I had a train to catch at 2pm, I decided it would be worth it to wake up early and get one last hike in before the trip. As I had hiked the opposite side of the Matterhorn and across the valley from the mountain I decided I would hike the side of the Matterhorn and get as close as possible to it. (I wouldn't climb it as I have zero experience mountain climbing plus my fear of heights would have probably kept me from completing it.)
In the start of the hike, like some of the other places throughout Switzerland it had somewhat confusing markers for the trail and ended up getting lost trying to find the start of the trail. When we finally got on the trail it was a 2.5 hour trip up which we were going to try and complete in less time as we were in a rush. Speed hiking, if you can call it that, is not as fun as you'd think as we rushed up the side of the valley towards the base of the Matterhorn trying to not take rests along the way.
The views were alright heading up this hike as we were in trees for the first half of the trail until we reached the vast planes and the views opened right up. As we neared the top of the ridge, the Matterhorn continued to grow in size as the mountain which seemed so far away stood right in front of me towering over me in an impressive fashion. We saw nobody on the hike which was nice as we reached the top and got to experience the real wildlife of Zermatt.
There were probably close to 100 of these little guys walking around grazing on the sides of hills and finding what little shade there was next to the buildings. They were interested in what we were doing and walked up to us initially until they got bored and went back to their activity of the day sleeping in the shade.
The part of the hike that I regretted was not being able to make it to the base camp of the Matterhorn. I wanted to be able to get as close to it as I could but it would have been another 2 hour hike from our position at the top of the ridge to the base camp and we didn't have time for that. This hike was a surreal experience as I could not believe that I was so close to a mountain as a kid I thought was only at Disneyland. The Matterhorn is a special mountain because it stands out all alone and its unique shape gives it a lot of popularity. I highly recommend this hike and would like to do it again on my next visit to Switzerland. It was moderate in difficulty as it was quite a significant elevation change but the trail was not that difficult and had good terrain throughout the hike.