4 - Around Eberstetten

The first part of our hike leads us into the Elsach valley, along Grabenstetter street and the cemetery grounds, where the ascent to the plateau begins behind the stone fountain room.

The steep zigzag path ascending the slope of Wölfing soon leads to a wide forest road.

We follow this path slightly uphill to the right. After about 150 m on this "recovery stretch," a narrow zigzag path begins on the left that leads us further uphill. For the effort of the ascent, we are rewarded shortly before reaching the plateau at the Wölfing viewpoint with a particularly beautiful view of Bad Urach with its mountains and the Elsach valley. The narrow Elsach and Ermstal valleys have always offered only limited agricultural land.

Therefore, in earlier times, suitable valley slopes and areas within the forests on the plateau were cleared.

One such clearing is the current pasture area of Ulmer Eberstetten, which we reach after a short climb from the Wölfing viewpoint. Our route now runs as a meadow path across a pasture area into the short forest patch opposite and then continues on a field path. At the municipal sheepfold, we turn left. On a well-developed forest road, we first walk along the forest edge, then through the woods, past the Schmidhalde spring. After half an hour, we reach Pfäler Eberstetten. There, the so-called Feldherrnhügel, a small elevation in the middle of the pasture, offers a good panoramic view. Benches invite you to linger in front of a shelter, and there is also a fire pit.

Behind the shelter, our path turns left and leads through the meadows toward the forest.

There begins the Pfäler Steige, which takes us gently downhill into the Langer Grund, a side valley of the Elsach valley. In the valley floor, we follow the path to the left and circle the valley end. From here, we have another view into the Langer Grund.

Continuing on our path, we repeatedly see the red roofs of the houses of the Elsachsiedlung district through the light high forest. We come to the zigzag path we already know from the beginning of our hike. It finally leads us downhill to the Geirenbad, where we end our hike.