Our first hike of the trip was a long one, but such a great way to start it off! From our campsite the hike to Kehlsteinhaus was a short drive and then an 8km/5 mile hike to the top! It started off with this nice gravel road in the forest, then turned into a much steeper paved path until you got to the parking lot at the top. You can't drive up there, but from where we parked you can take a bus up and back instead of hiking.
From the top you can see Königssee! The second day we hiked along those trails you can see towards the center of the photo. I didn't realize they were so close together when planning this! This looked farther away on the map.
Past the Kehlsteinhaus there were lots of fun rocks to wander around in. If we had taken the bus up we could have wandered through more than we did. As it was hiking up and back and exploring a bit was a full day.
This mountain was so white! I loved it. We had a long break eating lunch looking out over here.
There was a restaurant there at the haus and because it was such a beautiful day it was packed! There were so many people right there on this side that I was like let's continue on quickly to get away from the crowds a bit. On the trail side though (the other side of the haus from this photo) it was much calmer. Not so many people hiked up.
Another break on the other, quiet side before heading back down.
If you did take the bus to the top (or down) you could use this elevator from the parking lot to the very top (there is also a short trail which is what we took).
And headed back down. It wasn't until we were headed down that I realized just how steep the grade was!
Went down in elevation so much in 45 min that it crinkled my water bottle last opened at the top!
This is from about halfway up the trail - on the top right of the ridge is the Kehlsteinhaus. It looked soooo high when we were here on the way up I thought there is no way I am going to be able to do that. Or not in the time that we had. But we had started exercising last year and I really can't believe the difference it made on this trip! Normally I am super slow going uphill, especially steeper uphill, but I just went right on up! I was one of the faster people going up on our hikes! I actually passed other people!! That might not sound like a big deal to most, but for me it is something I am not at all used to. Everyone always passes me. I always had to stop and take a break every 2 feet it seemed, but not this trip. It was crazy as I had planned all this hiking to do, but figured we wouldn't actually get to all of it as a big hike every day is probably too much...but we did more than planned!
These were odd mushrooms that looked like they were burned...we saw a few bunches of them a few different places on the trip
Close up of below photo - Kehlsteinhaus on the left of the highest point!
And back to the campsite. It was a long day - just over 20km/12 miles which is a lot when we haven't been hiking/walking that much because of covid. On the hill to the left, in the sun, above the window closest to center on that camper on the left, is the Kehlsteinhaus! I didn't realize until we got back that we could see it from our campsite! It was a long day, the hike was probably a half hour too long for me as I was so dead by the time we got to the car, but such a beautiful day and a great way to start our trip!
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