The Älplisee and the Schwellisee: Arosa's two-lake walk

Älplisee Arosa is the higher of the two lakes above the village, sitting at 2,156 m in a bare basin below the Erzhorn, the Aroser Rothorn and the Älplihorn. The Schwellisee lies about 220 metres lower, closer to the village and reachable in an easy morning. Walkers usually take them together, which is why the route is signed as the two lake walk, but the lakes are worth understanding as places rather than as waypoints. They look nothing alike, they clear of ice at different times, and one of them is holding onto a piece of Arosa's history under the surface.

The Schwellisee and its sunken pines

The Schwellisee sits at about 1,930 metres, a short climb from Innerarosa on a broad path that families manage without difficulty. In still weather the water goes glass clear over a pale bed, and when the light is right you can see dark shapes lying on the bottom. Those are Arven trunks, Swiss stone pine. An Arven forest once reached far above the present shoreline, and the Walser who settled Arosa after 1300 cut it for mining timber and for their own use; what fell into the lake never rotted in the cold water, and enough of it was recovered in the early twentieth century to furnish some of the first hotels. A few ancient Arven still stand near the path, so you can see the living version and the sunken one within a few minutes of each other.

The Älplisee at 2,156 metres

Above the Schwellisee the ground steepens and the vegetation thins out. The Älplisee occupies a bare rocky hollow, with meadow on one shore and scree running down into the water on the other. It sits under ice for a large part of the year, so the reliable season is high summer and early autumn rather than late spring; in a cold year the surface can still carry ice when the village below is already green. On a windless morning the peaks reproduce themselves on the surface, which is how the lake earned its reputation among photographers.

Going higher from the lakes

Neither lake has to be the end of the day. From the Älplisee the path continues towards the Erzhornsattel and on to the Ramozhütte, both of which lift the walk from an outing into a proper mountain day and both of which want an early start and a look at the forecast. If you want the full route sheet with distances, ascent and timings, that lives with our hiking recommendations and the broader summer hiking guide. Riders reach the Schwellisee on the loop described under e-bike tours.

Go early. Both lakes sit in shadow until the sun clears the ridge, and both are quietest before the first gondola empties onto the mountain. Reception at Hotel Altein, a Faern Collection Resort, can check the snow line for you and lend you a rucksack if you decide over breakfast to make a day of it.