Täsch is a place most people pass through on the way to somewhere more famous, and it has made peace with that. Zermatt, a few kilometres up the valley, is closed to private cars, so the road ends here, at a large terminal beside the railway, where visitors leave their vehicles and ride the shuttle train for around twelve minutes to the village under the Matterhorn. For a motorcyclist the arrangement is simple. Park at the terminal, change out of the leathers, and take the train in.
The drive up the Mattertal is rewarding in itself. From the Rhône valley at Visp the road follows the Vispa river upstream, narrow and steep sided, through tunnels and past avalanche galleries, with the rail line wrapping around you. At Randa the cliffs show scars of the rockfall in 1991, when millions of cubic metres of mountain collapsed across the valley floor, and a long suspension footbridge, said to be among the longest in the world, crosses the gorge nearby. Surfaces are good, but the road is narrow, and tour buses and delivery vans share it, so take your time and leave early.
The mountain is the star. The Matterhorn rises to 4,478 metres, a pyramid of dark rock that looks almost too perfect to be real, and it was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper and his party, four of whom died on the way down when a rope broke. The tragedy shocked Victorian Britain, and made the peak more famous. It still holds the imagination, especially at dawn when the first light turns the summit pink.
Before you head up the valley, fill the tank down the valley in or near Visp, because fuel supplies in the narrow upper valley are limited and expensive. Täsch has plenty of parking and some restaurants and shops, though most people spend their nights in Zermatt. The roads here are fully usable in summer and mostly clear in winter, but heavy snow can close the valley, so check reports. Autumn gives clear air, golden larch woods and fewer visitors.