The Road Less Traveled By

My girlfriends and I set off the other weekend with a vague aim of seeing St Moritz, a ritzy Swiss resort town near Italy.  The ensuing trip brought to mind my favorite poem, Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken.  We began without a GPS, automatic drive, lodging, or itinerary.  The logical choice was the highway to St Moritz, a fancy hotel, & a weekend of lounging around the lake.

The road less traveled began about thirty minutes into the trip when I saw a sign for Heididorf and begged for a detour.  The story of Heidi living in the Alps with her grandfather was one of my favorite stories growing up.  My grandmother use to act out the story with us - Naturally I was Heidi, Clarke was Peter the goatherd, and Alyson was Clara.  Sorry James – you were a goat.  In the outskirts of Heididorf, brushing the Alps they’ve created the village from the story and I was beside myself with excitement.  Here we are below with Heidi’s barn.     

Klosters, ski resort favored by European royalty, was our next haphazard stop.  Highlights included a picnic in a restaurant and a bungee swing.  From Klosters we loaded the car onto a train and barreled through and under mammoth mountains for twenty minutes in pitch dark.  None of us were sure whether we were emerging a 20 km away or being teleported to the moon.  After our suspect train ride, we wound up on a road so off the beaten path that at several points you had to avoid hitting buildings and cows with remarkably the same frequency as it wound through picturesque villages.  

   

We decided to stop for the night in a village a stone’s throw from the Swiss National Park.  I befriended the front desk clerk and we ended up bunking in the undeveloped back component of a fancy hotel complete with a sauna, nice restaurant, & delicious buffet breakfast.  Before retiring for the evening we visited the mountaintop painted village of Guarda, population 186.

Sunday we ventured into the Swiss National Park and wow what scenery.  The lower section was prime grazing land and we encountered a good number of cows.  Not a bad life these cows have ...

The view from the top was definitely worth the effort.

After we hiked down, we did eventually reach St Moritz which lived up to its beautiful & glitzy reputation.  Sitting in the patio of a nice restaurant, wrapped up in lush blankets, was the ideal spot for a post-hike celebratory drink but I was glad we chose the road less traveled by.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.