Wind, Water & Wacken Dream Loop

We start from the “Hunsrücker Windweg” parking lot. The entrance to the parking lot is located right at the intersection of County Road 77 and County Road 76. We hike to the right, past the edge of the forest, along meadow paths. The first point of interest is the T-shirts fluttering in the wind, each bearing the coats of arms of the neighboring municipalities. Next, we’ll get a hands-on sense of the scale of a wind turbine. Balancing our way over tree stumps and walking through a hornbeam tunnel, we gradually ascend horizontally to the height of a tower—a height that’s hard to fully grasp when looking up at the vertically soaring power plant.
After this experience, we reach a “hands-on rotor blade” that gives you a sense of the dimensions of a wind turbine. We continue on to the wind turbine themed “At the Heart of Technology.” Here, you can get up close to a wind turbine and enjoy a magnificent panoramic view of the Hunsrück Heights. After a short stretch through mixed forest, we cross the K 76. Then we turn left and continue through a deciduous forest. After that, the impressive area of wind-felled trees left behind by Hurricane “Kyrill” in 2007 comes into view. Nature is slowly recovering from this natural disaster.
The hiking trail leads right through the middle of this area. Here, too, an information sign provides interesting details. We continue along the edge of the forest, with beautiful views accompanying us every now and then. Now we follow the trail along rustic, gnarled paths, over small spring-fed streams, and through moss-covered forests. We then pass through a dense, dark spruce forest, almost like a labyrinth. Via the “Schinderhannes Trail,” we reach a vast rock massif in the middle of a fairy-tale-like oak forest called “Die Berger Wacken.” On the northwest side is a five-meter-deep cavity, the “Schinderhannes Cave.” This is said to have been a campsite for the bandit leader.
The Berger Wacken is the largest in a series of quartzite boulders reaching the surface, which, as part of a so-called “Härtlingszug,” were gradually exposed over time from the surrounding softer rocks. Following old traces and paths of the Roman Road, we continue our hike through the Haardtwald toward the “Haardtwaldquelle.” The healing properties of the water from the Haardtwaldquelle were discovered as early as 1780 but were not tapped until 1964. The excellent quality of the healing and mineral water was certified by an expert report in 1985. Since 1990, the Haardtwald Spring (Sauerbrunnen) has been accessible to hikers and visitors and equipped with a shelter. The trail continues along a meadow path to a mixed forest. There, we come to a quartzite rock known as the “Froschfelsen” (Frog Rock). During a short rest on a sensory bench and upon closer inspection, with a little imagination, you can make out the shape of a frog. Guided by a magnificent view stretching far into the Hunsrück and all the way to the edge of the Eifel, we continue hiking along fields and meadows. After a stretch of the trail with great views, we spot two impressive polar bears under an apple tree. They symbolize the theme of climate protection, and the accompanying information board provides interesting details on the topic. The final kilometer takes us back along meadow paths to the starting point of our hike.