Interregio Hiking Trail Stage 5: Rheinfelden – Liestal

The Interregio hiking trail is marked with the Interregio trail sign (three black rectangles on a yellow background) with the addition "Interregio Hiking Trail". Between the signposts, we follow the yellow lozenge.

Starting from the German station Rheinfelden (Baden), we go south through the station square, cross the B34 and descend via Therese-Herzog-Weg to the bank of the High Rhine. There, shortly before the Old Rhine Bridge Rheinfelden, stands the St. Anna sculpture on the German Rhine bank, referring to the treacherous St. Anna hole in the middle of the High Rhine directly under the bridge: a mermaid mourns a drowned child lying next to her. Across the bridgehead in the Rhine, we reach the Swiss city of Rheinfelden and follow the Interregio hiking trail to the SBB station.

Opposite is the guest station of the Feldschlösschen Brewery. On special occasions, steam trains run from here to the brewery building about 800 meters away, styled like a castle.

Through Alleeweg we come to the bridge over the A3 motorway, which connects Basel with Zurich. On the other side is the "Belchenblick" at the foot of the forested hill "Berg". At the re-emergence at the location "Weid" lies the cultural landscape around the village Olsberg in front of us, which belongs to the hilly Tafeljura. The former Olsberg monastery was secularized and dissolved in 1790.

With the Violenbach stream, we cross the border into the canton of Basel-Landschaft but continue to follow the border line through open pasture landscapes over "Blauenrain" to the saddle "Spärgacher" between the forested hills Halmet and Eilete. In an elongated clearing lies the small village of Hersberg. In its center is the late Gothic Olsbergerhof from the 16th century when Hersberg was still part of the Olsberg monastery.

In the right curve, the path follows the 500m contour line to the junction "Stächpalmenhegli". The name indicates that holly trees have been growing here in the forest for a long time. In the Windetelhalde, we steadily climb to the Schleifenberg (606 m above sea level), the highest point of the stage. Here stands the 30-meter-high steel Liestal lookout tower, which we can climb after inserting a 50-rappen coin. From above, the view extends south into the Frenkental, in the north from the Vosges over the Dinkelberg and St. Chrischona to the Black Forest. A large barbecue area with tables and benches invites you to rest, as does the tower inn, which is open on Sundays and public holidays. On the steady descent from Schleifenberg, we look out from the nearby rock ledge Roti Flue over Liestal and reach in a sharp loop the outskirts at the Erzenberg foundry. After the Ergolz bridge, turn right to the Ziegelhof brewery and then left along the Orisbach stream to the Liestal station (327 m above sea level). At the end of the stage, a historic circular tour through the sightseeing-worthy main town of the canton is worthwhile.