INTO SAND IN TAUFERS

VIA ALPINA DAY 21 – SUNDAY 12 JULY 2026
GELLTALALM TO SAND IN TAUFERS

DISTANCE HIKED:  13.2 km
ELEVATION GAIN:  100 m

TOTAL DISTANCE HIKED: 526.1 km
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 27,820m

It’s a nice feeling to reach 500km milestone and know that we are around a quarter of the way through.  Our campsite last night  in the bowl of a glacial cirque was one of the nicest so far.   Waking up through the night to see a star filled sky surrounded by mountain peaks  was a sight we’ve been wanting on this hike.

We left camp around 5.30, birds were chirping, a few cowbells were ringing, the sun was shining and we had a great, well made trail underfoot.

An hour into our descent we started to pass quite a few groups hiking up to the hutte as a day trip. What a great day hike this would make with lunch in a spectecular location as an enticer.  We followed the river down the valley,  stopping a few times to give way to cows. They are really big animals. 

We got to a road just on 7am. We decided to leave the trail here and instead of going to a small village to our right, Rein in Taufers,  we turned left and headed to a larger town Sand in Taufers where we will rejoin the trail tomorrow.

It was warm already and we thought we do the 8km roadwalk as we wanted to hike the Francesco di Assissi trail which is along the way and leads to the outskirts of Sand in Taufers. The early part of the roadwalk was nerve wracking, narrow and winding road with hardly any shoulder. We were really lucky that it was Sunday and most of the traffic was heading in the opposite direction. 

We made it to the St Francis trail without incident. The trail is lovely and forested, it includes a beautiful chapel, an awesome waterfall, art pieces, religious texts in Italian and German.  The trail was really well built and it was a pleasure to share it with hundreds of people heading out to walk it as we were exiting. The carpark had a nice looking diner where the cook made pasta with a mushroom ragout today. It looked so delicious.

We made it into town and managed to get an early check-in at our hotel. Such a relief to get inside strip off and launder our salt encrusted hiking clothes, have a shower and put our feet up. It was another 35°C day.  Bliss to take a break and recover. Also nice to have phone and Internet service. So good to get news from home especially to hear that our nephews daughter is making a great recovery from a recent and  serious operation. We’ll be posting many more special flowers especially for you Lillith.