WATER FALLING

THIS COULD BE THE TITLE for the entire series of posts this year.  However, it's certainly apt for the trail we found recently, on a day when it just didn't make sense to hike too high. 

We had lunch at the usually reliable restaurant La Bosca at Rifflealp stop of the Gornergratbahn. (Zermatt has more than 50 mountain restaurants, with most open in the summer as well as winter.)

After lunch, though the weather threatened, we decided to take a short walk out a single-file trail toward Gletschergarten (Glaciergarden) and explore the "bowl" below us.  We found a mountain that exuded water from every rock and pore, and  collected in noisy stream beds.  Perhaps the most fun was a waterfall that poured over a rock face right next to the trail.

As you can see from the brief panoramic shot that follows the look at the waterfall, there's still more water above us -- getting collected to douse us again in the late afternoon and evening. Each day is a race back to town before the rain arrives.