Braunwald “Magic Forest” Theme Trail for Children

Braunwald is a beautiful mountain area in the Glarnerland alps southeast of Zurich. They have a fun theme trail for children called the “Zwerg-Bartli-Erlebnisweg” (aka Bartli the Dwarf trail), with several playful activities along the way.

Hidden in a rock “castle” cave, kids discover a throne lit with glowing gems. While wandering the “magic forest,” children search for seven dwarfs hidden along the path. Our kids favorite was the large water play area, fed by a waterfall, with streams to divert and rocks to rearrange.

Most families picnic at one of the many grill stations along the path. Or you can eat the restaurant in the middle of the trail, which has a playground with a fantastic view.

The full trail is not difficult, but it can be long for smaller children and not suitable for strollers. But you can do just half the trail, starting or ending at the halfway point – Grötzenbüel gondola station.

Braunwald is very close to Zurich, access by public transport is easy. It’s a great day out for families with children of all ages.

Trail Overview

The “Zwerg-Baartli-Erlebnisweg” trail starts from the top of the Burstberg-Gumen lift and hikes down to the Braunwald village. Along the way several interactive play stations related to a dwarf story, which is told on signboards at the stations. This map shows where the play stations are. 

There are restaurants at the top, middle, and end. There are lots of picnic areas with fire pits and wood.

The full trail is 7.6 km (about 3h30), but you can do half the trail using gondolas.

Here’s the interactive trail map you can download on your phone.

We did the whole trail with kids aged 8 to 12. The official walking time is 3hr30, which I think is accurate.

But our kids had so much fun on the trail, that we were on the trail about 6hr30. I recommend getting there early and plan for lots of play time.

Shorter version

For small children and a shorter day, I recommend doing half of the trail, either from Gumen to Grotzenbühl (4 km) or Grotzenbühl to Braunwald (3.6km). This allows for plenty of time to play on the trail and doesn’t wear the kids out.

The first half has more dramatic views, but our kids enjoyed the second half more (Grotzenbühl to Braunwald).

Hiking timeline

I found this helpful timeline on the trail. I found the times were pretty accurate for our crew. 

• Gumen lift – start trail
• 20 mins to #1 Dwarf castle and picnic area with fire pit (20 mins)
• 30 mins to #2 Gem cave with marble run
• 30 mins to #3 second Dwarf cave and picnic area with fire pits. From the main trail, it’s a short 250 m detour up the hill to reach the cave, then return to main trail
• 15 mins to #4 Dwarf play house and picnic area with fire pit.
• 5 mins to Grötzenbüel, Restaurant Chämistube and playground (gondola station is here if you are doing half the trail)
• 30 mins to #5 Dwarf “tower” with big slide and picnic area
• 5 mins to #6 Start of Magic forest with hidden dwarfs along trail
• 40 mins to #7 Water playground & #8 Dwarf play house and picnic area with fire pit
• 30 mins to # 9 Music station and Braunwald funicular

How to get there

This trail is located in Braunwald, an alpine village in the Glarnerland region of eastern Switzerland. You can access this trail by riding a funicular to the village, then a lift to the top of the mountain where the trail starts. 

Get yourself to Linthal in the Glarus valley, where you can board the funicular train up to Braunwald.

By car: Drive to Linthal in the Glarus region. The parking address is Stachelbergstrasse 2, 8783 Glarus Süd Switzerland. Follow signs to the metered parking lot adjacent to the funicular station. If the parking lot next to the station is full, there is additional parking on the south side of the train tracks.

By public transit: Take the train to Linthal Braunwaldbahn station (not Linthal, which is one stop further). The train station is below the funicular station. If you have an Ostwind daypass, it may also cover the funicular up to Braunwald. , but you need to show your train ticket at the Braunwald ticket booth to get the funicular ticket. More details on tickets below.

Planning your day

Tickets for mountain railways

You can purchase your mountain railway tickets at Braunwald funicular station. In most cases, you’ll need the “Tageskarte” (aka Day Pass), which includes the Linthal-Braunwald funicular and chair lifts to reach the trail.

In 2024, the day pass costs CHF 37/adult, CHF 18/child, and CHF 88/family.

It costs less with Swiss travel cards like Swiss Travel Pass, Half Fare Card, GA, Junior Cards. Also, if you are already in Braunwald, you don’t have to pay for the funicular. 

Because of the variety of discounts, I suggest showing the ticket office staff which trail you plan to do (they have a free map at the booth) and they will sell you the correct ticket. See current prices on their website.

Note: If you are arriving by train, make sure to indicate Braunwald as your final destination. The Braunwald funicular is included in the “Ostwind” regional train ticket, so you’ll pay less this way. 

Opening Times

This trail is usually open for summer season from late June to mid October.

The chair lifts and gondolas that service the trail are generally open from 8:00 – 16:30. Sometimes in August and September, they take an hour break over lunchtime. 

The funicular from the valley to Braunwald village runs about every 30 mins from early to late. Check current schedule on their website.

Zwerg Bartli story

This theme trail tells the story of Bartli, a dwarf who lives in the Glarus region. He has a long white beard, red pants and a green jacket. At the eight stations along the trail, you can see typical scenes of his life. The trail has an accompanying book, CD and coloring book available for purchase in the Tourist Buro.

The website has a brochure describing the stations. I’ve put some images here since who knows when this brochure might disappear (as has happened with other trails). There is also more trail info on this webpage.

The brochure contains a trail map, which is so misleading, I would completely disregard it. It makes it seem that you are hiking down, then back up, then down again, the back up – not the case at all. Also, the stations are not shown in an accurate location relative to the lifts.

Here is an accurate topographical map of the full trail from the top of Gumen, hitting all the stations, ending at the Braunwald funicular.

However, the descriptions and illustrations of the stations are accurate and a nice incentive for the kids.

Photo story of the trail

1. Riding up to Braunwald, then Gumen

At the top of the Braunwald funicular, you are dropped off in town. Every time we’ve been there are a variety of food and craft booths set up here and we usually buy some snacks for the trail. There are a couple small stores in town if you need supplies. To reach the trail, follow the road shown below toward Burstberg, taking the split to your right.

Walk west 1 km through town to the Burstberg-Gumen lift as shown below.  We accidentally walked down to Niederschlacht instead. But there is a free lift that that takes you to Hüttenberg and you can walk the rest of the way from there.

On the path to the Burstberg lift, you’ll pass a couple stations for the Melodies of Summer trail, including a guest book affixed to a pole, as shown below. We all signed our names in the book, look for us!

We saw some bee houses on trees along the trail. This little dwarf welcomed us to the trail.

The Burstberg-Gumen lift is shown below right, about 1 km from the funicular.

The Burstberg-Gumen lift alternates chairs and cable cars, which is a nice option for those with small kids that don’t do well on open chairs.

Ride to the top. There’s a restaurant at the top with a great view.

2. Starting the trail at Gumen

There are some dwarf rabbits next to the restaurant. This is part of another theme trail, Tierli Parcours, where you can visit several animals along the way and stamp your animal passport. We got the trail map and passport in the Gumen restaurant.

Not all of the animals are along the dwarf path, but some of them as shown below. We saw the rabbits, goats and pigs.

The dwarf trail starts directly below the restaurant. Follow the brown signs to Zwergenschloss.

Take the small detour out to the end of this lookout point before continuing down the trail.

Great place for some family pics.

The trail continues down on a narrow footpath.

Big views all around.

Looking up the mountain as we go down.

After about 15 mins, the path joins a dirt road. Continuing following signs to the Zwergeschloss and the little red dwarf symbols as shown below.

The Zwergenschloss, aka “dwarf castle”, is basically a fun rocky area for kids to explore. It is a short detour off the main path. When you enter this area, you’ll first pass through the picnic area with fire pits shown below.

There is a short circular path around the rocks, with some ladders and rocks to climb over. The path is fun for older kids, but it is tricky and sometimes slippery; little kids will need supervision so they don’t fall and get hurt. Have kids leave their backpacks in the picnic area so they have better balance. Sorry I don’t have better pics of the rocks but I was busy playing with my kids.

One of the caves has a throne with a crown, a treasure box, and gems that light up the cave.

The castle has these fun flower and dwarf faces to try on.

After visiting the castle, get back on the main path and follow signs to Edelsteinspalte.

As the trail heads east (to your left), you’ll be walking on a dirt road with a log path on your right (sorry no pic). In the middle of this, you’ll see a trail sign pointing down some stairs to Edelsteinspalte. Take this path. We were worried that we would miss the Zwergehöhle (dwarf cave), but this is just a little detour that leads through a small rock crevice in the forest, then back up to the main trail.

Inside the rock crevice, you’ll find this marble run, some mining equipment tacked to the walls, and a fire gem that you can light up by turning a crank.

After joining the main trail, you’ll walk about 500 m to this turn off tow the Zwergehöhle, aka dwarf cave. The kids weren’t so keen on this detour because they could see the restaurant playground in the distance and wanted to go play. So I went up with just one kid to check it out. It’s a steep climb, but only a couple minutes, about 250 m, to the cave.

The path isn’t marked, but you just follow this faint path around the curve.

Then there are stairs leading up to the cave.

Inside the cave, you’ll find the living quarters for a dwarf, including this table and little bed. The cave is set up to be lit by little gem lights, but it wasn’t working when we were there, so it was very dark. I recommend bringing a flashlight.

There is a little activity book at the mouth of the cave, which was super cute.

After rejoining the trail, it’s another 500m to the Rindenhüttli, another little dwarf house where the kids can play. There is a fire pit and picnic area immediately in front of the house. There are a few animal footprints scattered around the house as well.

3. Grötzenbüel playground and restaurant

The Restaurant Chämistube is just a couple minutes farther, where you’ll find this playground. This is also the top of the Grotzenbuhl lift. With little kids, you might consider starting your hike here.

It’s a self-service restaurant with the usual fare, nothing special except the view. There is a large patio with shaded tables.

Below the restaurant at the playground, there are benches where you can picnic. There was a also bouncy castle the day we were there.

4. Continuing trail down

Leaving the restaurant and playground, starting back on the trail. This is both the Zwergeweg and “Melodie des Sommers” trail.

Each sign board on the Melody trail has a question or activity, like this one that asks if you can make the same sound as a Elstar bird.

The trail descends into the forest. Right after you see the teepees, the Zwergeweg takes the right fork, while the Melody trail stays to your left.

About 30 minutes after the restaurant, you’ll reach the Zwergeturm, aka dwarf tower. The main attraction is this big slide. There are also simple telescopes for peering into the forest and metal funnels to amplify the sounds of the forest. There are picnic tables below the platform and wood for a fire, butI didn’t actually see where the fire pit was.

Here is the magic forest, where there are seven hidden dwarfs. There are not hidden very well and easy to find, don’t worry.

The path here is narrow, lumpy path. It was little muddy when we were there.

Exiting the Magic Forest. There are still some hidden dwarfs after this point.

5. Water play area

About 30 mins after leaving the tower, you’ll reach the Wasserspielplatz, aka water playground.

There is a waterfall above feeding the water playground, which has a couple different pools to play in, mostly redirecting water in different directions. Our kids spent an hour digging in the mud to reroute the river. They were so happy, it was too bad we got there so late (about 17:00) and had to leave before they were ready.

A little rope for climbing.

Another dwarf play house (Tidli’s), with a picnic area, fire pit and wood.

A few pics inside the play house, so cute. I love the tiny clothes hanging on pegs.

6. Hiking back to Braunwald

Heading back to Braunwald, maybe the prettiest part of the hike.

Looking back up the trail at the cliffs above.

My favorite pic of the day. These two cuties were telling fairy tales to each other while they waited for us to catch up.

Back to the Braunwald funicular, reading to ride down and catch the train back to Zurich. The funicular runs about every 30 mins. But the train in the valley starts running only once an hour after 18:00. So check the schedule beforehand so you don’t get stuck waiting like we did.

See more hikes in the Glarnerland region