With the summer heat nearly gone we were on another hiking in our own backyard mission. The south of Germany, including the black forest, palatinate and the neckar region, is completely expanded for tourism. It is easy to find tours or weekend activities in that region. It is a bit different in the eastern part of Germany. Also, there it has popular touristic regions like the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. But besides that there is not so much on the radar that is widely known. Nether the less with a bit of searching we found a nice tour for the day, the Köhlersteig.
The hike was completely for our taste. It leads only over small path mainly through the woods. No forest roads, only nice small natural trails. Starting point is parking lot at the “Alte Papierfabrik” in Greiz. The trail can not be missed as there are signs everywhere. One thing that caught my eye was that the majority of the signs are handwritten and not printed. This gave the whole hike just one more nice touch. Often it is the small things that make a hike special.
The hike just had the right amount of variation. Following nice trails, hiking up to natural rock formation for nice views over the area including the Göltzschtalbrücke. Overall the trail was 9 km long and had around 300 m height difference. The hike was not difficult but the hike up to the rock formation needs surefootedness. As the length of the hike was short, we didn’t bring any water or foot. I would recommend to at least bring water, as we needed 3 hours to complete the trail. Mainly hiking up to the rock formation eat up a lot of time.
With the good network of signs we just found out how many hikes are possible in the area. Another one for another day for us is for example the Rothentaler Alpen. This is the nice thing about exploring a new area, you do not know what you do not know. Another reason never to stop exploring, beautiful regions can be found everywhere. We just need to be open-minded in order to find them. Media often leads us all to the same place, the same direction. Even that there are endless amazing places that are just not as much shared as others but can be just as beautiful.
