A must-do when in the Upper Engadine, Muottas Muragl is no less enchanting for its touristy status. Take the funcicular up to 2,456 metres for sweeping panoramas across the whole region.
We wander at a steady height along the trail towards Lej Muragl, the terrain a grassy flank where marmots whistle and we find horses grazing wild. Across the valley is a murderously steep grey scree slope, and we can hear rockfall - or so we think. It turns out to be the gunshots of a huntsman seeking marmots. There are flowers here and there, not showy and bright like in the full throes of spring, but solitary and delicate: the last outliers of crocuses and gentians.
The lake, when we arrive, is a giant's puddle, turquoise beneath a chalkboard of mountains. Crowds of summits come into view as we navigate our way back to the funicular station, the view unfolding beyond cow pastures onto that peaceful full scene of the Upper Engadine. Our return path is precipitously sheer and narrow. To be mindful would mean noticing the bubbling brook and lively crowd of cows outside the alm in the valley, but I am concentrating on not losing my footing or tripping in a marmot hole.
As well as Piz Bernina, pointy and snowy, we can now see Piz Julier, an angular charcoal grey block, and Piz Ot too. The view stretches up Val Roseg and across lakes Staz, St. Moritz and Silvaplana. Bright blue puddles, sparkling, vying to grab attention from the undulating massifs.
