Zeller Horn over Hohenzollern
20 May 2018
You know all the nice published pictures you see of places, the ones in the travel guides with the perfect vantage point? Hohenzollern’s are shot from Zeller Horn. We were heading there to make the hike up to the top!
I’ve seen a bunch of different ideas on how to get to the top. One spot is a series of trails we found, but as we were looking it over we realized there was an easier trail on the other side of the mountain. We mapped it and found it would be a half hour or so to drive around the mountain and park at that spot, and figured if we just stayed and hiked here we’d be at the top by then.
Our estimate was, well... wrong.
The trails weren’t so difficult really, we’ve hiked similar at home. The problem was the recent rain had turned the narrow, steep, winding pathways into chutes of mud. Finding a foothold was extremely difficult, and the mud combined with the steep mountainside made every step a risk of sliding back. It was a long, arduous, exhausting hike thanks to the conditions. We pressed on though, determined to make it to the top. As we were about to cave in and give up, we saw the clearing ahead. We stepped from the trail into the open field and... looked to our left, where we saw a large rock outcropping and a viewpoint well overhead! Argh! But the last part of the trail proved to be rather easy. We finally reached the summit, and when we stepped up to the lookout point, every difficult step on the way up the trail became more than worth it.
This view deserves an effort to achieve it!
We sat in awe on that peak for a good while, getting pictures, lounging on the rocks, or just admiring the view and achievement of making it up there. We could have stayed at the mountain point or the castle all day, but of course the long drive there meant a long drive back. Too bad we couldn’t just take the easier way down from Zeller Horn, to get back to the car we needed to take the same steep, slippery path we used on the way up. In many ways, the path down was more difficult, as we needed to really focus on getting solid footholds and not slide down the rocky mountainside. Slowly and surely, we came back to the little church we parked by, and collapsed into our car.
We took a slightly different route back, making a stop in Triberg to hopefully find dinner. All was closed. This is the only frustrating part of visiting the Black Forest, it is difficult to find food after 8pm. It is one thing if you have a kitchen and can stock up, but in a hotel we are at the mercy of eating out. As we headed down Rt 500 back to Furtwangen, we found an open place in Schönwald and stopped for dinner. A rustic wood-oven salami pizza, salad, and dunkel beer really hit the spot! It seems surprising to find good pizza here, but it really shouldn’t be. We aren’t that far from Italy after all.
We pulled back into Brend as the sun had set, the cloud cover obscuring the spectacular view of the stars we had last time. It’s hard to fathom that we are already leaving tomorrow. There is something about this forest, this region... not just the woods or the villages or the atmosphere or the sights, but something deeper, something in the blood that is calling out to us. I really do love it here, and saying goodbye already really seems too soon.
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