Grimentz to St-Luc

We woke up early on July 22nd and caught the bus to St-Luc. Once we got to St-Luc we walked through town and hopped on a trail to the Hotel Weisshorn. Many of the hotels in remote places were built as shelters for people skiing in the winter. The Haute Route is actually used by Switzerland and some surrounding countries as a training ski or hike for their military personnel. Hotel Weisshorn is set up on a beuatiful hill looking down into a gorgeous canyon but it is a little crazy that there is this huge hotel in the middle of nowhere. The hike up to the hotel was steep but shaded. It felt great to be out hiking again. Groupie!

 A good portion of the hike on the way up was on a wooded trail with a very small irrigation ditch full of water running parallel to it.

 After climbing in the trees for quite some time we finally got to view our progress.

It was a gorgeous day on the way up to the hotel. The views from the hotel were amazing.

 Such a pretty place.

 The mountains are seriously everywhere.

 There were two cities below the hotel on the same side (St-Luc and Zinal) of the mountain and Grimentz, where we stayed the night before, was just across the way.

 Just a big hotel in the middle of nowhere.

At least there was a dirt road that you could drive up if you needed to. All the trails you can take from the hotel. Crazy!!!! You can see why I had that trail book in my hand the entire time.

 A selfie in the sun.

 We stopped at the hotel and had lunch before heading back to St-Luc. While we were eating lunch the storm clouds rolled in. The weather changes so fast at high elevations. Luckily this was just a rain storm and not thunder and lightning.

 We quickly ate and that got moving in hopes that we could beat the storm to our hotel.

 We were very fortunate and only got sprinkled on.

 This was a nice 8 mile day. We got back early so we could do laundry because it had been a while. If you ever go to Switzerland my advice about laundry would be to just do it yourself. It is so over priced and just not convenient like it is in the United States. The hotel had a laundry service. I only sent a couple things because my hiking clothes are not supposed to go in the dryer. Well I was so glad I did because the cost was absurd. Don't worry Virginia's clothes were all washed, dried, and pressed, but who needs that when you are backpacking. It was a very frustrating experience. We decided to laugh about it.

For dinner we had Raclette. They brought out little potatoes in a purse and then gave us melted cheeses, pickles, and pickled onions to eat with it. It was one of our favorite meals. Of course I had lemonade with it.

 The cheese was so delicious!

This was probably the nicest hotel we stayed in. You could tell it was just really well taken care of and a little classier than our other ones. The hotels were all nice but here the decor, food, and services were just nicer.