Max-Eyth-See dates back to 1935 and is located in Stuttgart-Hofen, next to the Neckar. It used to be a gravel pit but nowadays it is a nature reserve and a lovely recreational area.

You can walk around the 600 meter long lake and even take a stroller with you as the paths are flat and easy. Riding a bike or taking inline skates however is only permitted during the week, not on weekends. The park next to Max-Eyth-See invites you to sit down and relax for a while – or to be active and play football or such 🙂 If you want to get on the water you can hire a row-boat, pedal-boat or electric-boat. And if you’re into birds you can bring our binoculars and observe birds such as grey herons, coots and cormorants.

You will find two restaurants at the lake: “Haus am See” and “Treffpunkt am See”. Moreover, on the peninsula in the lake sits a small beer garden that even has a sand beach (but please mind that swimming in Max-Eyth-See is not permitted).

You can reach Max-Eyth-See by public transport. The U-Bahn stations “Wagrainäcker”, “Max-Eyth-See” and “Hofen” are located right next to the lake and the surrounding parks. If you’ve got the chance, visit Max-Eyth-See during the week as it is crowded here on the weekend.

More information about:

Boat hire at Max-Eyth-See (only in German)

Haus am See (only in German)

Treffpunkt am See (only in German)

Biergarten at Max-Eyth-See (only in German)

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Wutach Gorge in the Black Forest is 33 kilometers long and consists of 60- to 170-metre-deep gorges. You can hike along the river (note that it goes up and down all the time and can be quite slippery) and enjoy the amazing flora and fauna.

A good starting point for a hike down the river in the gorge is Schattenmühle (shadow mill). From here you only follow the signs (or the other hikers) and are in the gorge within minutes.

You will hike through lush green vegetation and pass interesting geological formations. For those of you interested in geology: The Wutach gorge is a beautiful example of the South German Scarplands. While hiking down the gorge you will pass several layers of sedimentary rock showing granite, bunter sand stone, tufa and keuper. It’s like walking through the history of our earth.

The hike itself is a treat. You will enjoy the beautiful vegetation, several waterfalls and if you’re lucky you might even see a fire salamander.

At one point you will pass the area where famous Bad Boll, a spa resort, was located in the early 20th century. Nothing is left of this resort nowadays but an alley of old trees and a small chapel.

I will leave you with some more impressions of the hike along Wutach gorge and, at the end of this post, some links to websites with more information.

Please note that you should only hike Wutach gorge when you have proper boots and don’t mind slippery and steep hiking paths.

More information about:

Wutach gorge (only in German)

Great places to stay are the campsite or hay hut at Bruderhof or the beds at Schattenmühle:

Schattenmühle (only in German)

Bruderhof (only in German)

There is a bus for hikers that runs between several entrances to the gorge: http://www.suedbadenbus.de/suedbadenbus/view/angebot/buslinien/wanderbus_wutachschlucht.shtml

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This adventurous hike near Stuttgart starts in the west of Murrhardt, a town located approximately half an hour drive away from Stuttgart. When you arrive in Murrhardt follow the signs to “Siebenknie”, then the ones pointing out the “Hörschbachwasserfälle”. You can park your car just before the road enters into the woods or you drive a bit further and park right next to the first waterfall.

When Moritz and I did this adventurous hike near Stuttgart, we parked on the first parking spot, took the trail on the left of the road and entered the woods. After a few minutes we saw a sign that pointed out the two waterfalls. We wanted to see “Vorderer Wasserfall” (lower waterfall) first, and thus turned right.

We descended into the Hörschbach Valley and reached the first waterfall a few minutes later.

So far, it was an easy trip. We crossed the waterfall via the little bridge, turned left and followed the sign with the blue dot and the stream of water. And after some more minutes the adventure began…

The trail got veeeery muddy and slippery.

Sometimes, roots served as stairs…

… other times trees served as bridges:

At some points, the track was missing completely for a meter or so because it had fallen down into the stream. Then you had to hang on to the steep cliff next to the trail and climb over the gap. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of that –  I was too busy trying not to fall into the water 🙂

After 1.5 hours (yep, it took us 1.5 hours to complete 2 kilometers) we reached the upper waterfalls (Hintere Wasserfälle). There is one waterfall located on the left:

And another one straight on. That’s what it looked like when we arrived:

Quite peaceful a pitturesque, right? That’s what I thought, too and used some stones in order to step on the other side of the stream to take this picture. Suddenly, something changed. There was a loud roar and the water running down the waterfall tripled. I didn’t know what happened but was smart enough to jump back to the other side of the stream, using the same stones again. I was SO lucky because the stones disappeared in the swollen water, as did the place where I just stood to take the picture.

Here’s what the waterfall looked like now:

We climbed up the trail on the right of the waterfall and reached a platform. And that’s where I found out what had just happened: Next to the platform is a watergate. When it’s closed, the water in the stream is collected in a small basin. Every hiker can open the watergate in order to make the waterfall look more exciting – or to scare the hell out of other hikers that are still down at the stream! 😀

The platform is the turnaround point of the hike. From here you can follow a big trail back to the lower waterfall and the parking lot (as we did) – or you still feel adventurous, then you can hike back the same way you came!

Here are some tips if you want to do this hike:

• Wear proper hiking shoes!
• Be prepared to get dirty. If I had known about the muddy condition of the trail, I would have worn shorts as the lower parts of my trousers were soaked in mud after ten minutes.
• Reconsider doing this hike if there has been much rain the days before. When we did the hike, a bad thunderstorm has raged in the area – that’s probably why parts of the trail and even bridges were missing.
• Only do this hike during the winter months when you’re experienced in hiking in icy conditions!

If you have kids and wonder if you can bring: We saw a lot of families and the kids seemed to have a blast. Of course they were covered in mud but the proud expressions in their faces might be worth the extra load of laundry 🙂

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