In Switzerland · By 4×4 · September 2026
The (almost) secret Grisons
Four days, two enthusiasts and a Jeep. Three passes to get there, a weekend of tracks around Andeer, and a small high-altitude lake whose name we will keep to ourselves. A raw, disorienting region, and so close to home.
- Duration
- 4 days · September
- Passes
- Nufenen · San Bernardino · Forcola
- High point
- Juf · 2,126 m, inhabited all year
- Vehicle
- Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
Day 1
The Nufenen, then three fortresses
The weather was on our side, the meeting point was Andeer, and we love passes too much to take the motorway. The Nufenen first, wild the way we like it: long pale hairpins laid across the pasture, ochre and grey peaks, and, if you are willing to forget the dam and the pylons in the distance, a true feeling of the end of the world.
In Bellinzona, love at first sight. We leave the Jeep and climb on foot from one fortress to the next: Castelgrande on its rock, Montebello with its ramparts tumbling towards the old town, Sasso Corbaro at the very top, perched above the forest. Three medieval castles on the World Heritage list, a fair amount of climbing, and a well-earned spritz on the square, in the shade of the arcades.
On foot · The hikeBellinzona, the three-castle loopCastelgrande · Montebello · Sasso CorbaroMap, figures and photos →
Day 1, evening
An albergo above Lake Maggiore
Christian does not like giving his money to hoteliers. So he found us, on the Italian side, an unlikely albergo high on the slopes, beside an almost empty reservoir. The only guests in the house, a spartan room, breakfast included, and a view that, as you rise above Lake Maggiore, becomes simply dizzying.
He says he slept the best night of his life. Emmanuelle would have preferred the rooftop tent. Travelling as a pair is also made of these small disagreements you laugh about afterwards.
Day 2
San Bernardino by the Roman road
The road climbs the Val Mesolcina through villages clinging to the cliffs in the middle of the forest. At the San Bernardino pass, a loop on foot devised by the specialist: up the right-hand side to the pass, between glacier-polished gneiss and small lakes mirroring the sky, and back down along the old Roman road, whose flagstones still hold, two thousand years later.
The grandeur of the place cannot be described. It has to be walked. Then on to Andeer and its hotel, luxury after the albergo, and a deep dive into an entirely Swiss-German world of off-roaders.
On foot · The hikeThe San Bernardino Pass by the Roman road13.3 km · 611 m ascentMap, figures and photos →
Days 3 and 4
Juf, Val di Lei and capuns
The weekend unfolds as a string of gems. First meal in Zillis, and our initiation to capuns, the stuffed chard rolls that are to the Grisons what raclette is to the Valais. Then the Avers valley up to Juf, the highest village in Europe inhabited all year round: a few houses, a chapel, and nothing else but vastness.
At Val di Lei, a geographer's curiosity: the dam wall stands in Switzerland, but the lake stretches into Italy. We cross the border without seeing it to have lunch at the rifugio. Homemade pizzoccheri, then a local viper liqueur, a digestif that wakes a man up.
Days 3 and 4
The tracks of Andeer
In Switzerland, driving off the roads is almost impossible; here, a supervised weekend opens a few tracks to us. Our philosophy has not changed: a track is a way to travel, not a playground. A magical climb to a hanging pasture, where we park above a gigantic dry-stone avalanche wall, a work of patience by the mountain people of old.
On Sunday morning, a climb straight up the slope, low range engaged, to the edge of a small mountain lake. The reflection of the peaks, the silence, the grass already turning russet. We will jealously keep its name to ourselves. And somewhere, a tunnel carved into the rock, just wide enough for the Jeep.
Last day
Crestawald, Beverin and the long way home
The Crestawald fortress, hidden inside the rock, is visited like a spy novel and ends with a Grisons soup served in army mess tins. Then a last immersion in the Beverin Nature Park, under an immense sky. We will have to come back for the Kaiserschmarrn at the hut up there.
Home over the Nufenen to our mountain pasture. A long drive, and hard to come back down to earth. A raw, disorienting region, a little improvised Swiss German, and already the urge to do it all again.
