After three glorious days hiking in Yellowstone National Park earlier this summer, I was certain that a day hike in Germany’s Palatinate Forest would seem boring, akin to riding the kiddie coaster after surviving the Kingda Ka at Six Flags in New Jersey.
As it turns out, boring, when you’re out in the woods, isn’t always a bad thing.
In Yellowstone, the moan of a tree rustling in the wind can set your heart racing. Hiking in a place where a grizzly bear could be lurking around the next blind bend in the trail is thrilling and terrifying. Your whole body is alert in a constant state of hypervigilance.
Several weeks after visiting Yellowstone, I set off to explore a portion of Rodalben’s Felsenwanderweg, or rock trail, happy to be traveling without bear spray and bear bells. The footpath loops some 27 miles around Rodalben, a small town a few miles northeast of Pirmasens, near the French border.
The town sits in a valley squeezed between two steep, heavily wooded hills, part of the Palatinate, Germany’s largest contiguous forest. The Felsenwanderweg winds through that forest past striking rock formations with names like Brother’s Rock, the Bear Cave, the Old Beer Cellar and Cow Rock.
With the aid of a rudimentary map, I found the trail and headed for the Bear Cave, supposedly the largest natural sandstone cave in the Palatinate.
The first two kilometers were unremarkable, consisting of a small, flat dirt road skirting horse meadows and ponds — and no rocks. Just as I was about to turn around, certain I was lost, the trail veered into the forest. And there it was: the bear.
It was only a stone bear, a life-size statue guarding its cave. On the map I had, there was a photo of people inside the cave, which has a depth of about 130 feet. But the black hole looked ominous without a flashlight, so I hung back.
As I looped back toward the town, the trail turned into a narrow footpath, twisting and climbing through a verdant forest of towering pines, ferns and moss-covered boulders.
After crossing a busy roadway, I picked up the portion of the path that climbs above Rodalben and offers bird’s-eye views of the town. I passed the twin sandstone formation of Brother’s Rock and a fenced-off hole in the side of a cliff called the Beer Cellar, probably so named because of the cool air that can be felt near the entrance.
The only wildlife I saw was a poor dead mole splayed belly up on the trail. But I saw plenty of wildflowers, climbed through a beautiful forest and enjoyed the relative peace without having to worry about encountering an animal that could shake me like a rag doll. It’s nice to know that there is more trail to explore.
Mountain bikers take note: Rodalben’s Felsenwanderweg has miles of single-track trails.
Rodalben’s Felsenwanderweg
DIRECTIONS
Rodalben is about 18 miles southwest of Kaiserslautern, about a 30-minute drive on the B270. There are several parking spots for the trail, including one across the street from Gasthaus Gruener Kranz. The GPS address for the inn is: Pirmasenser Strasse 2, 66976 Rodalben, Germany. From there, the trail is only about a five-minute walk across the railroad tracks.
FOOD
There are numerous restaurants and cafes in Rodalben. It’s best, however, to pack trail food and water because of the distances involved.
INFORMATION
Website: www.felsenwanderweg.de (in German). The trail is well-marked, but it’s best to pick up a detailed map of the Felsenwanderweg available at several locations in town, including the local Wasgau supermarket and tourist information bureau at Am Rathaus 9. A flier with a rudimentary trail map can also be downloaded from the Felsenwanderweg website.