Felsenpfad US 14

The Felsenpfad runs from the road on the western bank of the Selbitz up the slope of the Kesselfels and Drachenfels and ends back on the valley path. It lives up to its name. New views open up after every bend. Bizarre rock formations and trees that literally grow out of the rocks are a constant surprise. Individual boulders, as well as large and smaller seas of boulders, are evidence that weathering is able to break down the hard diabase over long periods of time. Information boards on an educational trail provide information about mining and geology. If you want to hike the extremely beautiful and interesting circular trail, you should be reasonably sure-footed in sturdy footwear.

Together with other hiking trails (US 53, US 12), we walk from the information center in Blechschmidtenhammer into the forest at the right-hand bend of the road at Waldeck. There we briefly walk along the former railroad line and then turn right. We now hike up the western slope of the Höllental valley, separate from the accompanying hiking trail after the steps quite far up and continue uphill keeping to the left, enjoying the wonderful view of the rocky forest slope opposite with the King David viewpoint.

The pleasant path continues through sections of forest with different types of vegetation.
Almost exclusively on a path, the trail continues along the wide left-hand bend close to the heights and back to the road in the Höllental valley, which is closed to public traffic. Along the way, we walk past beautiful rock formations, enjoy views and sometimes even vistas, enjoy new, impressive landscapes of the nature reserve after every bend in the path and find out about part of the mining adventure trail from the information boards.

The long path leads through an impressive landscape with numerous gentle ups and downs on mossy, rocky and soft ground. Many wooden steps and rock steps bridge steeper sections of the path, and at the end we look down onto the valley path, which we get closer and closer to and finally reach near the weir.

On the way back, we take this path to the left through the unspoilt Höllental valley.

We also come across sections of the other two adventure trails, Water and Forest, pass a refuge and, if you know how, close to this hut to the former confluence of the Hubertus spring.

Crossing the bridge with the three arches, shortly afterwards, the Höllentalbahn once steamed through the two tunnels to the right and left of the bridge. Today's power station is a reminder of the time when it was built in 1886 as a wood fiber plant by Anton Wiede. The Jungfernsteg footbridge with the small pavilion was also built at the same time. The footbridge was necessary for Wiede to cross the valley.

The final highlight is the view of the Hirschen. Hilmar Ströhlein found the following report about it in the Hofer Anzeiger of 29.08.1901: The Hirschsprung no longer has a stag. ... The storm has probably broken the feeble bones of the wooden animal. Hopefully the old landmark will soon reappear in a new guise as the crowning glory of that height. A few days later, it was reported that it was not the storm, but that they had been successful ... to find the boys in the local schoolboys who had willfully pushed down the stag ...

Locals report that a visitor from out of town told him that one of his ancestors is said to have carved a stag as early as 1850. After the power station, we are once again accompanied by a Selbitz river full of water, as it has taken the water diverted from the Röhrensteig via the power station back into its bed. It is not long before we reach our starting point again after a beautiful hike.</p