On the Pragelpass Trail from Lake Klöntal to Muotathal

This tour is Stage 2 of Route 29: The Pragelpass Trail. We start at the final bus stop of the Postbus from Glarus near the wonderful lake called Klöntalersee, at the Richisau Restaurant which has a very quaint terrace where you can relax and enjoy a drink before starting on the tour.

This tour to the Muota Valley over the Pragel Pass might stretch out in kilometers but does not involve any particularly steep ascents and so makes for a rather enjoyable hike. There are a couple of 15-minute stretches along the paved road, but mostly the trail goes through forests, meadows, and unpaved roads (the latter to the West of the pass), past farmsteads and moor landscapes, and in particular a very impressive 1-km section of well-laid stone path through a rock-slide area.

At 1548m the Pragel Pass is not a high one, but it is closed the longest to vehicular traffic in winter, opening again only late in May. The road is quite narrow and steep, and on weekends vehicles are not allowed up to the pass from the Eastern side. This pass has historic status due to the great Generalissimo Suvorov leading an army of 15,000 over the pass in 1799.

We discovered that the little family-run restaurant at the pass sells the best-tasting homemade cheese called Pragel-Chäs which is reasonably-priced and definitely recommended to buy.

Other interesting things to note along this tour is that just to the South is Switzerland's largest primeval forest called the Bödmerenwald, and down in the Muota Valley is one of the largest cave systems in the world (Hölloch). The Franciscan Cloister North of the Muota River in Muotathal has been home to Franciscan nuns for 725 years. (Visits only by appointment). General Suvarov stayed here at the time of his retreat through the Swiss Alps with his troops during the wars of the French Revolution.