Rainy walk in the Swiss Valaisan Alps

What to do on a rainy day in the mountains: seek water

Saturday was cool and rainy. After a few hours of looking out the window people were a bit ragged around the edges, so we went out in the rain. Here are some of the things we observed, heading up the mountainside to Aminon, driving around the rocks and boulders that have tumbled down the slopes during spring rains.

Looking at water in the rain: the mountain waterfalls are swollen from peak melt-off, another 500 meters higher. This photo was taken at a high speed, but still couldn't stop the water's action. Staring at the falls for 2 minutes offers a great lesson in why we can harness power from them for electricity.

Larch trees add a lovely soft touch and light green note to the darker greens of an alpine forest. They are at their most beautiful now, with gently swaying branches that brighten even rainy days.

The cones on larches are particularly pretty. The number of bright red cones, tiny, on the pine trees surprises: they look like berries until you draw close.

The Aminona forest clearings always hold surprises. Here, a breakway cloud heading at mid-height up the Rhone valley, rather than creeping along over the town of Sierre on the valley floor, or draping itself over the peaks above St. Luc, in the distance.

The sun never quite came out but it brightened a little and here is what we saw when we came home.

The ragged edges had left us by then.