At 1,543 metres, the Glaubenberg is a modest pass, but it crosses one of the most unusual stretches of Central Switzerland: a high plateau of raised bogs and wet meadows that was protected as a moorland landscape of national importance. The road climbs from Sarnen on the Obwalden side, passes through spruce forest, and then emerges onto an open upland where the horizon is low, the grass is tussocky, and the wind has a free run. It feels more like Scotland than the Alps for a few kilometres, until Pilatus or the Schratten limestone ridges poke out of the clouds and remind you where you are.
The riding is relaxed and slightly strange. The surface is generally decent but narrow, the bends are mostly gentle, and there are cattle grids and the occasional grazing animal standing in the road with total confidence. Part of the plateau on the Obwalden side serves as a military training ground, so firing days exist and the road can be closed for them. Check ahead before you plan a day around it, and expect a little of that sense of being in a place that belongs mostly to soldiers and sheep. The pass is also shut by snow in winter, usually from late autumn until spring.
On the western side the road drops into the Entlebuch, a region declared a UNESCO biosphere reserve, where the land is rough and wild by Swiss standards: marshes, karst limestone, damp pastures and a culture of dairy farming and wood. The people here have a reputation for being direct and not easily impressed, and the local cheese, made on alpine farms, is among the better souvenirs in the country.
Sarnen, about ten kilometres from the pass, is the nearest sizeable town, with supermarkets and petrol stations, and Schüpfheim and Flühli on the other side also have what you need. The moor can be cold and misty even when Lake Sarnen below is warm, so treat the top as a place for a layer and a flask rather than a picnic. Best light comes in the late afternoon, when the low sun rakes across the bogs and picks out every tuft of cotton grass.