Wild camping at the Seealpsee, what is actually allowed

The famous lake, and the honest answer

Most wild-camping stories in this journal come out one of two ways. At the Oeschinensee, real, enforceable law sits behind the ban, and there is a fine. At the Fälensee, in the Alpstein, camping is genuinely allowed, because a private alp tenant sells you his consent. The Seealpsee sits in between, and it is the case people get most wrong. You will read a flat "verboten" everywhere, but there is no camping fine at all, and the "no" is not a statute, it is the landowner declining. So the honest answer is not "forbidden" and not "free for all". It is: no public right, ask the Senn, and there is no ticket either way.

Three things decide it, and they are worth taking in turn: the federal map, Appenzell's cantonal law, and who owns the Seealp.

The lake lies outside the hunting-ban district

The Säntis towers over the Seealpsee, and the high massif is a federal hunting-ban district (Jagdbanngebiet) (object no. 16 "Säntis"). Inside such a district a hard federal rule applies¹:

"Free tenting and camping is prohibited. The use of official camping sites is reserved. The cantons may grant exceptions."Ordinance on Federal Hunting-Ban Districts (VEJ), Art. 5 para. 1 lit. e

That is no paper tiger. Free camping inside the district is a federal offence, fineable up to CHF 20'000 under the Federal Hunting Act (JSG) and enforced by the game wardens, and there no landowner's consent helps, only the canton can grant an exception⁷.

But the important fact is this: the Seealpsee lies outside that hunting-ban district. I checked it on the federal map. The layer of federal hunting-ban districts returns nothing at the lake basin, while the integral-protection polygon of object no. 16 sits on the north-side massif to the west (Rossegg, Ober-Mesmer, Lochtem)¹. So the federal camping ban does not reach the shore. It does apply if you climb from the lake up into the Säntis massif, and then a farmer's yes is worth nothing. At the lake, the question is instead cantonal and private.

For completeness: the lake sits in the BLN inventory (object 1612 "Säntisgebiet")⁸, which binds the authorities to take care but does not fine an individual camper. The Alpstein is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

What Appenzell law says: consent, not a ban

Appenzell Innerrhoden has no law that bans wild camping. Its camping ordinance (Campingverordnung, GS 935.610) instead permits the occasional placing of a single tent outside official campsites, capped at about one month per year, and a cantonal decision reads that provision as an owner-based exception, for example a group the landowner personally allows, not a public right to camp anywhere². Its penalty articles were repealed in 2005, so the ordinance carries no fine for wild camping at all.

That is the key to reading the official "no". As long as there is no leisure law, there is nothing to fine you with⁴:

"As long as there is still no leisure law, there is no fine."Position of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, via the regional press

So the police, the alp staff or a warden can ask you to leave, but not issue a ticket. And the Standeskommission, the cantonal government, holds as the rule in force that camping stays allowed "with the express permission of the landowners or the responsible Sennen"³. That permission is exactly what is hard to get at the Seealp, and exactly what makes or breaks a lawful night. The "access to forest and pasture for everyone" of Art. 699 of the Civil Code (ZGB) does not rescue it: that is a right of passage and to gather berries, not to sleep overnight⁶.

Who owns the Seealp, and why it matters

Around the Seealpsee the canton is a major landowner, and it does not want camping. In its own words, via the regional press⁹:

"We do not want a campsite around the Seealpsee, and one would not even be legally possible."Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden as landowner, via the regional press

Two things sit inside that sentence. The "we do not want" is the owner declining consent, which is the whole game under the camping ordinance. The "not even legally possible" is a separate, spatial-planning point: a permanent campsite in the alpine zone would need a planning permit that the Baugesetz does not give for a facility unrelated to alpine management¹¹. That is about a campground, not about a single tent for one night.

But the ownership is mixed, and that is the nuance most reports miss. The alp rights on the Seealp are held partly by the canton (which bought one of them in 1942) and partly by private persons, and the canton also leases some of them¹⁰. So it is not one public "no" across the whole basin. A private Senn who controls his own alp can give the consent the ordinance asks for, on his ground.

How to do it right: ask the Senn

The Alpstein's own house rules put the mechanism plainly¹²:

"Kein wildes Zelten. Biwakieren mit Einwilligung des Grundeigentümers gestattet."Alpstein house rules (Meglisalp and others): no wild camping; bivouacking permitted with the landowner's consent.

So the lawful route at the Seealp is not to pitch up, it is to ask the responsible Senn first. In practice there is a designated overnight area at the upper end of the lake, where the farmer lets you put up a tent for a small fee, roughly CHF 7 a night¹³. The Senn is Hans Gmünder, of the Seealp cheese dairy. It is an on-the-ground arrangement rather than a published offer, so phone ahead and confirm.

Where it does not apply, or does not help

The Seealpsee answer is spot-specific. Three places where it flips.

• Higher up in the hunting-ban district. Climb from the lake into the Säntis massif and you are in the federal Jagdbanngebiet, where free camping is a federal offence, fineable up to CHF 20'000, and no farmer's consent helps.
• Anywhere without consent. On the canton-owned shore, or on any alp without the Senn's yes, you have no permission. You will not be fined today, but you can be moved on at any time, and rubbish or faeces are in any case a matter for environmental protection law.
• As a public campsite. An advertised, recurring camping offer is no longer the occasional exception the ordinance allows, and it runs into the zoning wall the canton describes. This is about one tent for one night with permission, nothing more.

Bivouac, emergency bivouac and the treeline

You will read that a single bivouac above the treeline is usually tolerated. That comes from the SAC information sheet and is not a binding legal norm⁵, and at the Seealpsee it fits badly anyway: the lake sits at 1'142 metres in a wooded, busy, serviced setting, below the treeline, not on a lonely high ridge. The operative rule here is not altitude but consent, which is exactly what the Alpstein house rules say: no wild camping, but a bivouac with the landowner's consent.

Kept apart from all of this is the genuine emergency bivouac: anyone caught out by weather, injury or nightfall who can no longer descend safely may stay out. That is an emergency, not a planned camp, and generally permissible.

What is changing soon

An assessment with an expiry date. Back in 2019 the canton's line was that camping at the Seealpsee was "grundsätzlich erlaubt", and the tourism director only proposed a ban¹⁴. By 2025 the canton-as-owner had hardened to "grundsätzlich verboten", and the Standeskommission is now drafting a cantonal camping law: wild camping on private and public car parks to be banned as a rule, bivouacking only under conditions and with the landowner's permission. The earliest Landsgemeinde vote is estimated at around 2028³. Until then the consent rule described here applies, so read this as a snapshot and re-check before a tour.

General rules for wild camping

This applies everywhere you are actually allowed to sleep outside, so on a Seealp alp with the Senn's consent too. It is not legal text, but decency and common sense, and it is the reason the alps still tolerate anyone at all.

• No fire. An open fire has no place in the mountains. A gas stove is enough.
• Pitch the tent late, take it down early. Only set up towards evening, gone again early in the morning. A bivouac is one night, not a base.
• Leave no rubbish. Everything you carry up, you carry down again, including organic scraps and toilet paper. Rubbish, noise and faeces are exactly what turned the canton against wild camping at the Seealpsee.
• At least 50 metres from any body of water for the big business, so you do not foul the drinking water of people and livestock.
• Stay small and quiet. A small group, no speaker, no drone, dogs on the lead, and the instructions of the alp staff take priority.

Disclaimer

This article reflects my research and assessment to the best of my knowledge, as of July 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.

Cantonal ordinances, ownership, protected areas and alpine operators' rules can change, and Appenzell Innerrhoden is expressly working on a new camping law. What is described here may already be out of date by the time you read it. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself, ask the responsible Senn or landowner on site, and check the protected-area layers, in particular the hunting-ban district, on map.geo.admin.ch. 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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