Hinterzarten, Pikenfelsen

Just 4 minutes by train, we stopped of at Hinterzarten. It looked to have some interesting sites of a gorge, a viaduct and some monuments, so we plotted a route and put on our hiking legs. And it was absolutely superb.

The Black Forest itself was about half hour walk from the station, and from here we climbed up through the towering pines aiming for Pikenfelsen at 1040m. It was cooler than yesterday at around 28° and whilst it was hot in the sun, the trees lent shade and there was a welcome breeze. En route, we stopped at Berend's Bankje (Berend's bench) which gave us a sneak preview of the view from the top.

The view at Pikenfelsen was unbelievable and very peaceful. The view point had some well-shaded benches and a beautiful lookout point (albeit on the other side of the fence!).

From here, we traversed down the hill in the Ravenna Gorge through a series of steep, narrow switchbacks, flight led us far lower than our starting point. These brought us to the Ravenna viaduct, an almost 60m high train bridge through the gorge, rebuilt after destruction in WWII. We followed the Ravenna back up (bloody stairs!) passed a beautiful waterfall and an old watermill.

Exiting the valley, and walking back to Hinterzarten town for a well deserved pint after 3 1/2 hours of hiking!

Beer Index (Hinterzarten) - €5/0.5lRead more