Hiking the Zürichsee-Rundweg Trail – Stage 9 Meilen to Küsnacht
We had absolutely gorgeous weather this past weekend – perfect for continuing our through-hike of the Zürichsee-Rundweg trail. Stage 9 took us from Meilen to Küsnacht and like stage 8, it starts and ends in a ravine (the Meilen Dorfbach and Küsnacht ravines, respectively.)
Along the way, we passed though some beautiful farmland with fantastic panorama views. Definitely one of the prettier stages of the hike.
| Where: | Meilen, Canton Zürich, Switzerland |
| Train: | Zürich HB -> Meilen Bahnhof – 16 min Küsnacht -> Zürich HB – 16 min |
| What: | Zürichsee-Rundweg Trail – Stage 9 |
| Skill: | Easy – About 2 hr 10 min Length 8 km, Ascent 260 m, Descent 150 m |
| The Zürichsee-Rundweg is a ten stage trail that starts and ends in Zürich, Bürkliplatz and makes a complete loop around lake Zürich (including the Obersee). Photo stories for each stage here: Stage 1 – Zürich, Bürkliplatz–Adliswil Stage 2 – Adliswil–Horgen Stage 3 – Horgen–Richterswil Stage 4 – Richterswil–Pfäffikon SZ Stage 5 – Pfäffikon SZ–Schmerikon Stage 6 – Schmerikon–Rapperswil SG Stage 7 – Rapperswil SG–Stäfa Stage 8 – Stäfa–Meilen Stage 9 – Meilen–Küsnacht ZH Stage 10 – Küsnacht ZH–Zürich, Bürkliplatz |
Getting There
The Zürichsee-Rundweg trail is best done with public transportation as each stage starts and ends at different points. Stage 9 starts in Meilen in the Meilen Dorfbach ravine. After hiking about 10 minutes from the train station up to the ravine, we were right back where we were when we left stage 8.
The Trail
After crossing over the bridge we rejoined the Zürichsee-Rundweg trail next to a little pond. Here we began the climb up and out of the ravine, ending in a residential area.
As we continued to hike up, we left the houses and apartment buildings behind and entered wide open farmland. From here, there were gorgeous views of the mountains and lake Zürich.
As we continued the hike, we passed some pretty late blooming sunflowers and a few cows that posed nicely for a picture.
The views on this section were extremely lovely no matter which direction we looked. And now on section 9, it was quite gratifying to see Zürich so close again.
When we passed the cute restaurant in the first picture, Kittenmühle, we couldn’t resist their charming, extremely well-spaced out-door terrace, and stopped for lunch. I am so glad we did. The food was excellent. In fact, the sauce on the fish special we ordered was so delicious my husband even ate the accompanying zucchini just to have more of it. We definitely recommend this place.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we noticed a plaque that said the artist Karl Lukas Honegger once lived there. Not an artist I was familiar with, but always fun to discover someone new. After leaving the restaurant we passed though the Erlenbach ravine and then went though a bit more farmland before getting to the Küsnacht ravine.
Swissmobility has a hiking route that takes you through the Erlenbach and Küsnacht ravines and after just a peek at them, I’m now putting the route on my list for the future.
Getting Back
When we reached this bridge crossing the stream in the Küsnacht ravine, we had to make a choice.
We could end the hike, walk down the ravine path and go to the train station in Küsnacht to go home, or we could continue on with stage 10. Stage 9 was only 8 km long and we
had gotten an early (for us) start. Even though we took a long lunch break, we still had time for stage 10. And, as the weather couldn’t have been nicer, we decided to press on.
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