Black Forest
Wooded Upland Range About 160 Km Long Rising To The Feldberg At 1,493 M, With The Black Forest National Park (2014), The Titisee And Schluchsee Lakes, The Triberg Waterfalls And The Cuckoo Clock And Black Forest Cake Traditions · Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Wurttemberg
The Black Forest is a wooded upland range about 160 km long in the south-west corner of Baden-Wurttemberg, running from Pforzheim down towards the Swiss border and rising from the warm Rhine plain to the Feldberg at 1,493 m. It is not alpine country: the summits are rounded, the valleys deep and green, and the appeal is dense spruce and fir forest, pasture, cheap and excellent walking, and an unusually solid set of small-town traditions. The south holds the Feldberg, the Titisee and Schluchsee lakes and the gorges of the Hoellental and the Wutach; the middle holds the Triberg waterfalls and the clockmaking towns; the north holds the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, the Mummelsee and the Black Forest National Park, created in 2014. Freiburg is the obvious gateway and Baden-Baden the spa town at the other end. Trains do most of the work - the Schwarzwaldbahn and the Hoellentalbahn are scenic lines in their own right. Expect rain, mist and a reserved local welcome, and expect Titisee and Triberg to be full of coaches by eleven in the morning.
The Schwarzwald, from Pforzheim south to Waldshut and from the Rhine plain east to the Neckar; Freiburg, Baden-Baden and Titisee are the main gateways, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
The range itself is open and free all year; what has hours are the individual attractions. The main walking season runs roughly May to October, and the ski and snowshoe season around the Feldberg roughly late December to early March in a good year, with no reliable snow below about 800 m. The Triberg waterfalls charge admission and open daily with shorter winter hours and occasional closures for ice and storm damage - confirm. Cable cars at the Feldberg, Belchen and Schauinsland run daily in season with maintenance breaks in spring and late autumn. Museums such as the clock museum at Furtwangen and the open-air farm museum at Gutach keep standard German hours and some shut entirely in midwinter. Baden-Baden's thermal baths open daily, late into the evening - confirm times and which days are textile-free before you go.