Nine and a half thousand years ago, give or take, the side of a mountain fell into the Rhine valley. The Flimserstein rockslide, the largest in the Alps, sent some twelve cubic kilometres of limestone down into the valley, dammed the river into a lake and left behind a field of broken boulders that you now ride across without noticing. When the lake finally burst through, the Vorderrhein cut a deep channel through the debris, and the result is the Ruinaulta, the Rhine Gorge, which the Swiss like to call their Grand Canyon. It is an overstatement, but not a ridiculous one: the white cliffs reach some four hundred metres, topped with pine, and the river runs turquoise at the bottom.
From the viewpoint above the gorge, near Flims and Laax, the whole canyon opens beneath your boots. A platform sticks out into the void, and the cliffs fall away on both sides, with the river curving below like a ribbon. In the gorge itself, a red train of the Rhaetian Railway creeps along the bottom, and in summer rafts drift past full of cheerful passengers in helmets. Cars and trucks cannot reach the bottom, so the gorge feels wild, though it lies close to ski resorts and golf courses. Pay attention near the edges, where the drop is real.
The ride that brings you here is the Viamala and Rhine Gorge route, a pairing of two very different canyons. The Viamala, the bad road, is a narrow slot cut by the Hinterrhein south of Thusis, crossed by bridges of different centuries, while the Ruinaulta is wide and open by comparison. Roads are good and the bends are easy, with Flims and Laax offering mountain scenery and bike-friendly hotels. Traffic is moderate, though weekends in summer see more cars and rental bikes around Flims.
Flims and Laax are small resort villages, with about two or three thousand residents, so expect cafés, shops and a few pumps, but for large supermarkets and a wider choice of fuel, Domat/Ems, about twelve kilometres away, is the better bet. The nearby Caumasee, a small, green lake in the forest, is a lovely place to cool off in summer. Mornings are clearest, and autumn is spectacular when the forest turns, while winter closes the access roads.