Ruinaulta

Ruinaulta, the Rhine Gorge, is the canyon the Vorderrhein has cut through the debris of the Flims rockslide, one of the greatest landslides known in the Alps. Almost 10,000 years ago the mountainside above today's Flims gave way, and more than ten billion cubic metres of rock came down and buried the valley of the young Rhine. The river then slowly sawed its way through the rubble, and the result is a gorge about 13 km long and up to 400 m deep between Ilanz and Reichenau, whose pale walls look more like a desert canyon than anything one expects in green Graubünden.

The name is Romansh — ruina for the scree and broken rock, aulta for high — and it describes the landscape precisely. The walls are not solid bedrock but compacted landslide material, mostly shattered limestone, and erosion has sculpted them into towers, pinnacles and sharp gullies that glow white and ochre in the sun. Forest clings to every ledge, and at the bottom the milky green river winds in loops over gravel banks. There is no road along the floor: the only continuous route through the gorge is the Rhaetian Railway, which follows the river past small halts at Trin, Versam-Safien and Valendas-Sagogn.

The classic viewpoint is Il Spir, a viewing platform designed by Corinna Menn in 2006 on the edge of the gorge near Conn, above Flims, giving a bird's-eye view straight down to the river bends. From the railway halts, trails climb along the rims and down to the water, and the river is run by rafts, which is perhaps the best way to feel the scale of the walls rising on both sides.

Getting there

The gorge begins about 17 km west of Chur, the capital of Graubünden. Rhaetian Railway trains stop at Trin, Versam-Safien and Valendas-Sagogn, the starting points for walks in the gorge, while the Il Spir platform is reached on foot from Conn above Flims. The nearest airport is St. Gallen–Altenrhein (ACH), about 78 km away; most travellers arrive by rail via Chur.