Ruine Scharzfels

Before we left I had planned on doing a hike we did last time we were here today. There is a lynx enclosure up in the mountains you can walk to from where we are staying and we went by last time, but didn’t see any. Well they feed them on Saturday afternoons so I was like we are of course doing that!! Well…then we drove higher up in the mountains yesterday with all the snow and I was like nevermind! We are coming back up to the snow tomorrow! Which is what we did.

We once again got lucky with our timing as there is a giant parking lot at the top of the mountain with a lookout tower you can climb and take a slide down (we didn’t as it was too expensive), and were going to do a hike in that area. Well the parking lot was crazy busy and cars were backing up in our direction trying to turn in (it was schoss the street so they had to wait for the traffic going the other way and the cars turning in from the other direction) so we headed on and found a place along the road a bit farther down to park. It was crazy as like 15 min later as we were hiking back the traffic going the way we had been backed up forever! No moving as there was too much traffic going the other way and way too many people already trying to park there! So we had perfect timing and just missed the traffic!

There is also a good sledding hill right there with so many people at 10am! You could ride the attached sleds back up the hill which was nice. There were so many people everywhere, but once we got through the parking lot and onto the trail there was no one. We were following 2 sets of footprints until we got to the stamp box! Then there was a lot more footprints (and people coming from all over!). So many people stopped to get their stamps! We hiked up to this tiny waterfall and could see across the valley to the stamp box and watch all the people stop.

The hike was really nice! The perfect amount of snow making everything pretty, though we started at everything white and went down a bit in elevation and it was gorgeous! The dark greens of the evergreen trees, the reds of the deciduous trees, and the light greens of the snow covered evergreens up higher! I really loved it!

The hike up to the waterfall was nice along the water until this steep, narrow section which was a bit slippery. I ended up sliding down on my booty on the way back as that was way easier than trying to not fall!

When we got back to the road it was covered with parked cars! In the first photo you can see two lanes for traffic coming towards us - well that left most lane was all cars parked! And all the side streets were lined with cars everywhere. And every hill had people sledding down them! So many people enjoying the snow!

When we drove by the big parking lot again it was backed up on the side going our way to get in, but it was two lanes so no issues getting by, but the two lanes going the other way were still backed up forever! So many people! We figured it was because it is really easy to get to and the roads were clear and everything. Everyone wants some snow fun!! It was a really great hiking adventure!Read more