More hiking... Without sticks

So today the clouds parted and the rains cleared so we could see the lovely Matterhorn yet again. She was hiding the past few days, but now back in full view.

We had breakfast... Took a quick peek through the hotel telescope...

Where we literally were able to see people on the top of the Matterhorn. It was crazy! What an accomplishment to climb and so cool to see people standing up there.

We decided to leave conquering the Matterhorn to the professionals and set of on the much more manageable "5 Lakes Tour." It is about a 6 mile hike that we took a funicular train and a ski lift to get to. We rode up to the town of Blauherd to start the hike. (We decided this go around that we would mostly opt for hiking down the Alps rather than up them - and starting in Blauherd let us do that. :)

This is us on the ski lift pod.

So off we went! They gave us these nifty little pamphlets when we bought our train/lift tickets that if we stamped them at each of the 5 like and then turned it in at the end - we'd get a prize! Well - I like a challenge so we were totally up for going after that prize.

The first lake we arrived at wasn't too far down the path. It was called, Stellisee and was very lovely.

We sat on a rock for a little bit before heading off towards the next lake. But first we got our stamp.

The signs along the hikes here are just helpful enough to be confusing.

We took a sort of detour through some marshy mud, but made it to what we hoped was the right trail to get to lake #2. It was a long, long hike zig-zagging down the side of one of the Alps - I'm sure our knees are going to love us after this trip is over. This is a shot of the side of the mountain we trekked down.

The second lake was back in some woods and was gorgeous. It is called, Grindjise.

We actually ran into some folks there who were from Minnesota and Oregon. They know Cassie Potter's in-laws so Cassie if you read this, we saw people who live on the same lake as Corrie's family! It was fun to chat with them for awhile.

Onward we went, over this little stream.

And to the next lake, Grünsee, which was a more level hike, not down the side of a mountain. That is where we decided to lunch on the sandwiches we brought with us - not a bad view for a picnic.

Other than the really loud, crazy group of kids from a camp - it was very peaceful.

The next part of the hike was another lovely path through the trees down a smaller side of a mountain where we found ourselves at the lake, Moosjisee. Lots of construction going on around Moosjisee so we collected our stamp and pressed on!

Time to head to the last lake, Leisee, which would conclude our journey. This is where the hiked tricked us and made us go partly up a mountain, which was pretty steep. Some how we made it... Maybe just a bit on the slower side. Stopping to take more pics of the Matterhorn as we climbed our way up to Leisee.

Here is the final lake on the journey... there was a kid's park there so there were lots of kids running around and falling in the lake. It was still pretty.

Plus we got our final stamp!

Time to find out what prize we won. We were thinking maybe a pin or a piece of chocolate - is the suspense killing you? It was something we would never have guessed -