Wild camping at the Golzerensee: the tent ban is cantonal, which is why nobody quotes it

Three zones, drawn in 1986, with tents named in the prohibition

The instrument is cantonal, and that is the whole reason this ban is so easy to miss. People check the commune's website, find nothing about camping at Golzern, check the landowner's page, find a general permission, and conclude they are fine. Both of those checks are real and both are beside the point.

The Reglement über den Schutz der Region Maderanertal und Fellital, RB 10.5111, was adopted by the Uri government on 5 May 1986 and amended in 2006 and 2014. Most of it governs a large outer area, where it regulates building works and roads and says nothing about tents. But article 6 carves a nature-protection zone out of that area at this lake specifically, in three parts:

• Zone I, "Flachwasserbereiche am Westufer des Golzernsees", the shallow water on the west shore.
• Zone II, "landseitiges Ufer des Golzernsees", the landward shore of the lake.
• Zone III, "Moore östlich des Golzernsees", the moors east of it.

Article 7 then lists what is forbidden in those zones, and the list is not vague:

"Insbesondere ist verboten: ... f) zu zelten und zu campieren sowie Standplätze zu diesem Zweck zu überlassen. Gewährleistet bleibt das Zelten zwischen den Seegäden und dem Bach beim Stall Jauch im bisherigen Rahmen."Canton of Uri, Reglement über den Schutz der Region Maderanertal und Fellital, RB 10.5111 of 5 May 1986, art. 7 para. 2 lit. f.

Note what that wording catches. Not just "camping" but "zelten", tenting, and not just pitching but also making places available for it. A one-night bivvy in a small tent is squarely inside "zelten". A tarpless bivvy bag with no tent at all is a harder case that the wording does not obviously reach, but it is untested, and given the rest of the list it is not a distinction worth a fine to explore.²

And here the penalty does bite. Uri prices camping once, in the fixed-penalty reglement RB 3.9223, at "Lagern, Zelten oder Campieren in Schutzzonen ... 150 Franken", expressly based on article 34 paragraph 1 letter a of the cantonal nature-protection act "in Verbindung mit dem jeweiligen Reglement". That tariff needs a protection reglement that actually prohibits the conduct. At most Uri lakes there is none. Here there is.⁴

The two checks that mislead people, and why. Canton Uri has no general camping ban: its Polizeigesetz RB 3.8111, Polizeireglement RB 3.8127 and nature-protection act RB 10.5101 contain no camping provision at all. The commune of Silenen publishes a camping prohibition for the Seewlisee and nothing for Golzern. The landowner, Korporation Uri, permits camping across its territory without registration and names only Göschenen and the Seewlisee as exceptions. All three statements are true, and none of them helps, because a silence at one level of government proves nothing when the norm sits at another. The Korporation's own conditions in fact point straight at it: the first one asks you to observe the rules inside nature and landscape protection zones.⁵⁶

Where the zones actually are

The reglement does not describe the boundaries in words, it attaches a plan. Anhang 2, "Plan der Naturschutzzone Golzern, Plan II", is a 1986 topographic sheet with the three zones hatched onto it, and it is the only thing that says how far the ban reaches.³

Read off that plan, with its own 200 metre scale bar: Zone II covers the land immediately west and southwest of the lake and reaches roughly 150 metres back from the waterline. Zone I is the shallow margin on the west side, partly in the water. Zone III is a separate block on the east and northeast, over the moors. The marked footpath, the Graspelenweg along the south side, runs through the area.³

How precise is that 150 metres. Not very, and it should not be treated as a survey line. The plan is hand-drawn at a small scale, and its bar scale calibrates to about 0.83 metres per pixel at the resolution used here; measuring the lake itself off the plan gives about 342 metres east to west against the 328 metres the modern map gives, so the calibration is good to a few per cent but the drawn boundary is not. The Amt für Raumentwicklung says as much in its own notice on this reglement: the cadastre shows only the outer perimeter of the Maderanertal and Fellital protection area, the inner zones come from the reglement, and where the two disagree the reglement prevails. So do not go looking for the line on a cadastral map. It is not there.³⁷

The map facts. Golzerensee, WGS84 46.775713 N / 8.739586 E, LV95 2'699'355 / 1'181'328, 1'411.1 m, commune of Silenen, canton Uri, cadastral reference EGRID CH330779460567. The federal layers return one hit at the point, the landscape inventory object BLN 1603 "Maderanertal, Fellital", which binds authorities and contains no camping provision, so it is not what forbids anything here. No hunting-ban district, no wildlife rest zone.¹⁶

And the place itself is not wilderness: 132 buildings within 1.2 kilometres, the nearest at 150 metres, a bathing area, fire pits, a public toilet, two mountain inns and a cable car from Bristen. At 1'411 metres this is below the treeline. Even without the reglement this was never a quiet bivouac.¹

The one strip the reglement still guarantees

The prohibition does not end with the full stop. The same letter f continues: "Gewährleistet bleibt das Zelten zwischen den Seegäden und dem Bach beim Stall Jauch im bisherigen Rahmen." Tenting between the Seegäden and the stream at the Stall Jauch remains guaranteed, within its customary extent. That is a statutory carve-out, not a favour: nobody has to grant it to you.²

The catch is that you cannot navigate to it. "Seegäden" and "Stall Jauch" are 1986 local names for barns west of the lake and neither survives in the modern national gazetteer. The nearest thing that does is "Seewen", a place name 369 metres west of the water, which also appears on the 1986 plan. I am not going to hand you coordinates I would be inventing.³

Two more conditions that apply whatever you are told. The landowner, Korporation Uri, asks you to make contact with the alp people when you are near their operation, and at a lake with two inns and a working alp around it you always are. Tell the Korporation in advance on 041 874 70 90 if the stay runs over three nights or over ten people, carry rubbish out in the official charged bags, and leave the place tidy.⁵

If what you actually want is a night in this valley without a phone call, go higher. The Bristensee is 4.6 kilometres from here, in the same commune, on the same landowner's ground and inside the same outer protection area, and it is outside every zone that carries the camping ban. At 2'097 metres it is above the treeline with six non-residential buildings inside 1.2 kilometres against this lake's 132. That is the honest recommendation this article should have made in the first place.²

And one to carry with you. The Seewlisee, also in this commune and on this same owner's land, is prohibited except with a booked permission. Nothing here applies there.⁵

General rules for wild camping

These matter more where the rules are tight than where they are loose, and here they are tight. A protection zone that people quietly camp in is a protection zone that eventually gets signs, wardens and a stricter reglement, and the guaranteed strip is exactly the kind of thing that gets withdrawn when it is abused.

• No fire. An open fire has no place in the mountains. A gas stove is enough.
• Pitch late, strike early. Set up towards evening, gone again early. A bivouac is one night, not a base camp.
• Leave no rubbish. Everything you carry up you carry down, organic scraps and toilet paper included.
• At least 50 metres from any water for the big business, so you do not foul what people and livestock drink.
• Stay small and quiet. A small group, no speaker, no drone, dogs on the lead, and the alp staff's word goes.

Disclaimer

This article reflects my research and assessment to the best of my knowledge, as of August 2026. It is based on the publicly accessible and official sources linked below. It does not replace legal advice and is not a binding statement of the current legal situation.

The earlier version of this article, published 17 August 2026, stated that no cantonal rule prohibited camping at this lake and recommended specific pitches west of the water. That was incorrect and has been replaced. The zone boundaries here are read off a hand-drawn plan from 1986 and are approximate; the competent cantonal office states that the reglement's definition prevails over any cadastral geometry, so treat the metre figures as orientation rather than a line you can stand next to. The scope of the guaranteed tenting strip between the Seegäden and the Stall Jauch, and whether the competent directorate has since restricted it, could not be settled from published sources and needs a local answer. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself, read any sign you find on the ground and follow instructions on site. A genuine emergency bivouac in distress is a separate question from a planned camp. Anyone who spends the night outside bears responsibility for their own conduct and any consequences themselves. Hikebeast, Leon Helg and Saftladen GmbH accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of this text, and call on no one to break applicable law.

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Leon Helg

Swiss filmmaker and software developer. Spends his free time in the Swiss Alps and maps his favourite spots for Hikebeast. Posts as @leon.helg on Instagram and TikTok.

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