Alpine Panorama Trail

Lüderenalp is a well-known destination in the Emmental Valley with panoramic views of the Jura Mountains and the Bernese Alps. The location of the former sanatorium at 1141 m is amazing. It was built in 1890 and at that time it focused on tuberculosis patients. In 1961, it burned down and was replaced by a hotel with a restaurant which is popular with holiday guests and day visitors. This stage leads over a long mountain ridge past scattered farms and trees and across meadows with views of the valley of the Grosse Emme and the Bernese Alps towering in the background.

The descent is easy. After about two hours, you reach the Dürsrütiwald forest area at over 900 m. The largest tree of the forest, a white fir, has been growing here for over 350 years. It was approximately 57 meters high when its crown was cut off by a storm in 1999. With today’s destination in sight, the Moosegg, you continue to descend about another 300 altitude meters to Emmenmatt. The trail continues past farms with elaborately piled wood stacks. Langnau in the Emmental Valley is known as the centre of the Emmental cheese. Its typical holes are even used in some idiomatic expressions, such as “full of holes like Swiss cheese,” referring to impractical rules, for example. In Emmenmatt you cross the Ilfis and the Grosse Emme rivers. The two are joining just a short while later to form the Emme.

Now the trail climbs uphill for about 90 minutes to Moosegg. Via the hamlet of Blasen it leads along the mountain ridge and past cow pastures to the observation point. The views of Langnau, the Emmental Valley and the range of the Bernese Alps are wide open. Hotel-Restaurant Moosegg is situated at 950 m and known for its open-air theatre and for the Woodrock music festival.