Rob and I have really enjoyed hiking together and love the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bavaria area. We decided to travel there for a quick weekend to go hiking and (maybe) see Zugspitze. We stayed at the
Hotel Garni Jägerhof in Grainau, since we enjoyed our stay there so mach last time.
The night we arrived, we ate at an amazing German restaurant in Garmisch called
Zum Wildschutz. The food was delicious and we enjoyed the cozy atmosphere and local music.
The following morning, we woke up to heavy fog. We usually can see the beautiful alps from our B&B window, but this morning, we could barely see the neighbors house. We drove a few minutes south on Zugspitzstrasse and parked near a cow field to begin our hike. There were no signs for what trail to take so we picked a path and went at it. We began our hike directly behind the bus stop on the hill. When we finished our hike, we came out on the road to the right of the church.
About 20 minutes into the hike, we stumbled upon the Kinder trail. We were greeted by many little gnomes and little trinkets left over from fairies and princesses. It was very cute.
After that part of the trail, we turned onto a cleared pathway (road) where we stopped to refill our water bottles with some fresh mountain water from these adorable little fountains.
We turned onto another trail and about an hour into this one, we realized we were on the wrong trail. We somehow ended up on a crazy trail that had us on the edge of the mountain for hours! I was glad it was so foggy so I couldn't see down. It was a stressful hike to do with a little one but thankfully Rand was passed out a good chunk of our hike on the ledge.
After the very scary ledge hike, we came up to a very scary old bridge that took us over Höllentalklamm gorge (Hell Valley) and next, another very scary and steep hike down to the riverbank and entrance of the gorge. Again, we never knew where we were going. We didn't have a map and didn't see any signs indicating where we were or where we were going. Also, the few people we ran into on the trails had no idea either, lol. When we arrived at the little river bank, we took a little snack break, changed Rand's diaper and let him run around a bit. We continued hiking to the left to eventually turn back around 30 minutes later and go right to the gorge.
Höllentalklamm gorge was stunning and these pictures do it no justice. After we went through, we came to the Höllentalklamm gorge "entrance" and paid a few euros for our little adventure through "Hell." There is a little restaurant and some bathrooms at the gate, where we grabbed a little bite to eat before hiking back down to our car. It was such an easy hike down and I say "hike" loosely bc it was a walk in the park (literally) compared to our hike earlier.
Disclaimer: My husband claims we were never lost... we merely took the scenic route. It was more beautiful by far than the car path that most tourist take so I cannot complain.
