Westweg-Etappe 04: Unterstmatt - Alexanderschanze

The stage across the Grindenschwarzwald leads over the highest peaks of the northern Black Forest. At an altitude of over 1,000 meters, the hiker follows the main ridge of the northern Black Forest with constant ups and downs. The unique Grinden landscape and stunning views of the Rhine Valley almost 1,000 meters below make this stage one of the highlights of the Westweg.

The bare, high moorland plateaus on the peaks of the northern Black Forest are known as Grinden. They were created in the Middle Ages through intensive grazing and are overgrown with bristle grass, heather and mountain pines. Today, the grasslands are being preserved with targeted clearing and a revival of livestock farming.From Unterstmatt, a narrow path winds its way to the Ochsenstall inn and then climbs up to the mighty television tower on the high plateau of the Hornisgrinde, the highest mountain in the northern Black Forest. The small Bismarck Tower stands at the highest point of the plateau. At the southern end of the moor, above Lake Mummelsee, the Black Forest Association erected the large Hornisgrinde Tower in 1910, which has been open to visitors again since 2005 following the withdrawal of the French military.Behind the mystical Mummelsee lake, the Westweg trail crosses the slopes of the Altsteigerskopf, which were swept bare by storm Lothar. The cozy Darmstädter Hütte tempts you to stop for a bite to eat. Just under a kilometer further on, the dark Wildsee lake in the Bannwald forest shines like one of the eyes of the northern Black Forest. The nature center at Ruhestein vividly explains the history of the Grinden landscape, which presents itself in a typical way on the flat Schliffkopf (1,055 m). The unimaginable force with which storm Lothar must have swept over the Black Forest at Christmas 1999 can be impressively admired on the Lothar Trail. The small circular trail climbs over the downed trees and crawls through the reappearing undergrowth. The Röschenschanze at the refuge and the Alexanderschanze from the 18th century bear witness to stormy times of a very different kind in the northern Black Forest.