Hiking
The most important hiking route in the Black Forest passes through this small village. The 240 kilometre long-distance hiking trail
Ostweg, which leads from Pforzheim to Schaffhausen in Switzerland.
Ernstmühl also offers its visitors, on both sides the Nagold, various opportunities to experience nature.
On the left side, towards Hirsau, the
Wolfsschlucht (Wolve´s valley) ,with its
waterfalls plunging into the valley, rises as mighty as powerful. She’s steep and wild. An adventurous hiking trail, on which numerous stone steps facilitate the ascent, leads up to Ottenbronn. With its mighty boulders and slabs, the countless small cascades and whirlpools as well as the mossy, fern-covered stones and tree stumps, this wild gorge is definitely worth a hike and a detour.
On the right, coming from the same direction, the march is something
more pleasant, less demanding but no less interesting. Steps lead over the
Bundsandstone cliffs, like a labyrinth, through the individual rock layers. One of these steep slopes even houses a cave, the origin of which is due to weathering and leaching of the Bundsandstone. It is no less than the legendary
Brother’s Cave. The two legends surrounding the Brother Cave suggest the origin of its name. On the one hand, the enthusiastic inhabitants of Ernstmühl tell of a shelter that the monks of the former Hirsau Abbey used as a refuge in difficult times to hide. The second and far more beautiful tradition speaks of a hermit monk who lived here in the solitude of the forest far from all the hustle and bustle.
This legendary area can be discovered ideally on the 13. 7km long hiking route
through the wildly romantic Schweinbachtal to Bruderhöhle.
