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Klöntalersee Lake Hike

Lovely alpine lake, great for leisurely picnics. There is a nice trail along one side of the lake, in the forest and on the lakeshore. We love it in all seasons, but particularly in fall when the trees change colors.

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The Klöntalersee is a big alpine lake surrounded by mountains, a lovely place for a picnic and leisurely walk. We usually just do a short walk from the parking or bus stop until we find a good spot and settle in for an afternoon of rock throwing and perhaps swimming if it’s warm enough. If you want to hike, we suggest riding the bus to the far side of the lake and hiking back on the forested path along the water. 

Location: Glarus, Eastern Switzerland
Address: , Switzerland
Car: Parking GPS: 47°01’59.2″N 9°00’23.7″E
1hr from Zurich
Train: Bus stop: Klöntal, Rhodannenberg
1hr15 from Zurich HB
   
Trail: 6.5 km one way, about 2.5 hours
Elevation: highest point 970m
Condition: dirt, partially obstacle-free
Difficulty: easy • ascent 17 m, descent 28 m
Open: year round, weather dependent
More info: www.kloental.comwebcam

Location

Klöntalersee is an alpine lake located in the mountains west of Glarus in Eastern Switzerland, accessible by car or bus.

You arrive by car or bus on the right/east side of the lake, where you’ll find parking. There are plenty of nice places to lounge lakeside a short walk from the parking, as shown later in this post.

There are many informal picnic areas along the lake, with old fire pits and loose wood to gather in the forest. There are restaurants and cafe at both ends of the lake, but no services in between. You may swim, but the water is chilly so save that for a hot day.

Trail map

If you want to hike, there is an easy 6.5 km trail along the southern side of lake, shown on the map below. I suggest taking the bus to the far end of the lake and walking back towards the parking. 

View interactive map on SchweizMobilKomootAllTrailsOutdoorActive

Trail conditions

The east half of the trail near the parking is a wide dirt road for the first couple km, suitable for strollers and bikes. Then it narrows to a lumpy dirt footpath for the rest of the way, not suitable for strollers or bikes.

How to get there

By public transport:

Take a train to Glarus. Then take the Postauto 504 bus direction Klöntal. It runs hourly on the :53 (not at 11:53 or 13:53) and takes about 17 mins to reach the lake.

You can get off at Klöntal, Rhodannenberg on the east side or Klöntal, Platz on the west side. The bus returns from Klöntal, Rhodannenberg to Glarus at 12:16, 15:16, 16:16, 17:16, 18:16.

By car:

From the A3 highway, take the exit 44 toward Glarus. Before you reach the town of Glarus, take a right at the sign for “Klöntal” and continue to follow signs to Klöntalersee, as shown on the map below. There is metered parking near Camping Güntlenau on the east side of the lake – 47°01’59.2″N 9°00’23.7″E.

If you are doing the hike and want to ride the bus to the west side of the lake, here’s the 2020 summer schedule for weekends. Check www.sbb.ch for current schedule.

Klöntal, Rhodannenberg to Klöntal, Plätz – 9:10, 10:10, 11:10, 13:10
Klöntal, Plätz to Klöntal Rhodannenberg – 11:58, 14:58, 15:58, 16:58, 17:58

Photo story of trail

We’ve gone in May, August and most recently in October and the pics in this post come from all these seasons.

Here’s what you’ll see in early May as you drive up to the Klöntalersee.

After leaving town, continue on a narrow windy road for about 10 mins that will suddenly spill out to the lake when you least expect it. Buses travel this road, so be careful driving around curves. Seriously, it’s quite narrow and you may have to back up to let oncoming traffic pass.

Arrival at the lake

But it’s worth it. When you reach the lake, there’s a grassy area to your right and a restaurant set back from the lakeside. You’ll usually see lots of people lounging and picnicking here.

To reach the parking, turn left, drive over the dam and follow the road to the metered parking near the campground (not the campground parking, which is reserved for campers).

Lounge & picnic lakeside

If you want to just wander and find a nice lakeside spot for a picnic, just start walking down the same road, past the campground. 

This map shows a couple of the things I talk about below. There are lots of nice picnic spots along the lakeside within about a 10 min walk from the parking. It’s about 1 km from the parking to the grassy picnic area on the left.

Here’s the Güntlenau campground, right next to the lake and parking. My friends recommend this place, but it’s popular so reserve a spot in advance. There is a Kiosk at the campground if you need some supplies (only open in the summer season).

Just after the campground, there is a river bed where lots of families go to splash around. In August, the water level was very low, but also very cold. It gets the most sun of the day and it’s very shallow in this area, so safer for little kids. We had a nice hour building dams in the river and finding frogs.

About a 15 minute walk from the parking lot, you’ll find this big grassy area, plenty of space to run around. There are usually some portable toilets near here.

In August, it was hot enough to swim, but the water was still very cold. It was shallow at the start but very slippery and marshy, the kids thought the lake bed was a little gross to walk on. Careful with non-swimmers as it can unexpectedly get deeper. 

There are a few formal grill pits with a grill and stools, some with a table. But you’ll also see lots of random fire pits along the lakeside. You can usually find wood laying around, but last time we brought a few firewood logs and were happy to have them because everything else was wet.

The path starts as a wide dirt road. But after about 1 km, it turns a lumpy rocky trail shown on the right. It’s not difficult, but not suitable for strollers or bikes. We took our bikes one time, because I thought perhaps the dirt road went all around the lake. But it’s a narrow walking path, not for bikes. So we turned around. 

The trail ends at Vorauen at the west end of the lake. 

Hike the full length of the lake

As I mentioned above, we prefer to start our hike by riding the bus to Vorauen on the west side of the lake. Then we hike back to our car from there. We took the bus from Klöntal, Rhodannenberg to Vorauen, the west side of the lake as shown here. The trail starts near the Klöntal, Plätz bus stop.

We got off the bus one stop early at Klöntal, Vorauen because there’s a restaurant there (shown below) and we wanted some snacks. We also used their toilets before heading out. Since it was off season, we did a shortcut through the campground (shown in blue) to join the trail.

There is a boat dock. I assume there are boats to rent in summer.

The trail is in heavy forest but it still has lots of lakeviews. It’s very shady since you are directly under the mountain peaks above.

Some of the trail is by the water.

Some parts of the trail are on narrow paths that drop sharply into the lake, which could be dangerous for small children.

The views down the lake are gorgeous!

There was a small waterfall slightly off the trail that was worth the detour. I suppose it would be running more heavily in summer. We were there in mid-October.

Here’s the lake, stunning in fall, but lovely in all seasons (pic from early October)

Lots of nice places to picnic, but a bit shady.

The trail ends back at the campground and parking. If you took the bus here, just keep following the road to reach the bus stop.

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8 Responses

  1. Hello, what a great website, thank you.
    Can you tell me about any cowdecents you may know of that would be a 2 hour train ride at most from Appenzell Sept 15-17th? Thank you

    1. You might find the list of cow descents on MySwitzerland.com helpful: https://www.myswitzerland.com/de-ch/erlebnisse/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungen-suche/?rubrik=alpabzuegeaelplerfeste

  2. Thanks for all the details. Parking, bus times etc. they were perfect. We’ve (2 adults and a dog) just walk one side, in 2hours, it was raining, so we didn’t want to hang around. But there are plenty of places to stop if we had want to eat our picnic.
    For other dog owners, there are plenty of bins at either end of the lake, but nothing in-between. I walked for over an hour carrying a bag of poo.

    1. Thanks for the tips for dog owners! Glad you enjoyed your day at the lake.

  3. We went there today, very nice place thank you for the tip! On weekends the area can be closed to cars when it gets too busy, your only option is to get the bus from the bottom. We arrived at 4pm and we’re waived through, I guess many people already left. It was still very busy but we managed to find some – free – parking on the north side on the side of the road. Busses run both directions hourly until 6 on July/August weekends.
    Water is nice and cool, very enjoyable. Our 22 month old had a great time!

    1. Thanks for the helpful tips for busy days. I’ve heard that this lake has become extra busy this summer. I hope you were still able to have a fun time there.

  4. Thank you for the tip, we have just returned from Klöntalersee and truly enjoyed the recommended hike and scenery! We had the waterfall to ourselves, saw lots of mini frogs, slugs, a squirrel. Fabulous, highly recommend this hike, felt like a visit to Jurassic Park 🙂

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Hi! I’m Tanya and our family has been living & hiking in Switzerland since 2005, collecting dozens of fun hikes and activities for all ages and abilities. More about us…

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