Tyrol: Hike to the Seebensee and Drachensee lakes

These two lakes are probably among the most beautiful in the whole of Tyrol. Both can only be reached on foot. While the Seebensee can even be managed with a pushchair, you need a bit of fitness for the Drachensee. However, the hike is very worthwhile.

Tour dates:

• Start: Ehrwalder Almbahn car park (Dr. Ludwig Ganghoferstr 66, 6632 Ehrwald)
• Costs Ehrwalder Almbahn: Ascent and descent 19,5€. Here are the current Prices and Operating hours.
• Refreshment stops: Ehrwalder Alm, Seebenalm, Coburger Hütte
• Pure walking time: 1:45h to Seebensee + 45min to Drachensee (return another 2h)/ in total approx. 4,5h
• Difficulty: Easy (to Seebensee) to moderately difficult (to Coburger Hütte / Drachensee)
• Total path length: 10.4 kilometres
• Altitude metres: uphill 360 m, downhill 360 m
• Season: Recommended from June to mid-October

Seebensee & Drachensee

We park at the Ehrwalder Almbahn car park and prepare our Kraxn for our child and our rucksack. If you want, you can start hiking here. However, we want to save ourselves 400 metres in altitude and buy a ticket for the ascent and descent for €19.5. We board the gondola at 9.37 am.

8 minutes later we reach the mountain station at 1510 metres. After a quick visit to the toilet, we start our hike at 10:00 a.m. and walk along the Koatiger Weg after the mountain pasture in the direction of Seebensee.

To do this, you have to turn right at the mountain hut and take a more beautiful path through the forest. The path to the left or straight on from the hut is the easier (but less beautiful) forest path.

After just a few minutes, the path narrows and dips into the forest. It goes briefly downhill and immediately uphill again. At 10:25 we see the small Almsee lake for the first time on our right through the thicket.

After just over half an hour, the path widens again and finally becomes a narrow gravel path that leads through the forest. The path is now relatively flat.

The path is simply marvellous, like a fairytale forest. We even discovered a giant toadstool at the edge of the path.  

After about 40 minutes, the forest path crosses the forest track. We continue to the left while the forest path runs to the right. The path continues over hill and dale. We even encounter cows along the way. At 11.15 am, the forest thins out and we have a wonderful view of the mountains. We see the Seebenalm hut for the first time, where we stop for refreshments shortly afterwards.

We order a bacon dumpling soup and a cheese dumpling soup for €6.7 each. Unfortunately, there is so much pepper in the broth that you can hardly taste any of the flavour. Nevertheless, the rest stop with the surrounding cow pastures and the mountains in the background is wonderfully idyllic.

From the Seeben Alm to the Seebensee it's another 15 minutes uphill along the forest track. In total, it took us 1.5 hours to get there.

The lake is simply beautiful, even though there are quite a few people up there. We take time to take photos and rest.

we continue to the dragon lake

At 13:00 we set off again for the Dragon Lake. The route initially follows the banks of the Seebensee along.

The route now climbs steadily uphill along a rocky serpentine path. This is by far the most difficult part of the hike. The path offers little variety, but at least you have a wonderful view of the Seebensee most of the time.

After about 40 minutes, we reach the Coburger Hütte with the Dragon Lake. Unfortunately, the queue for self-service is so incredibly long that it probably takes half an hour to get food here. As unfortunate as it is, we have to do without food and drink. Luckily we have a little something with us.

The view of the dragon lake is beautiful, even if it is a little overcast at the moment. The colour of the lake would definitely stand out more in the sun.

If you feel like it, you can jump into the cool water to cool off. Even in the height of summer, however, it is freezing cold.

We decide to turn back and hike to the Seebenalm hut for a bite to eat. After a good break, we hike back down the mountain along the forest path. Although the path is not as beautiful as the forest path, it does offer a few lovely viewpoints with views of the valley from time to time.

At 17:00 we reach the mountain station again and take the gondola down to the valley.