Lake Königssee moss forest

I promise this'll be my last Germany post for a while! But while it's still fresh in my mind, I wanted to share this too. It's my first visit to a large-scale moss forest. I've been in forests hiking before and seen areas caked with moss, but never as far as the eye can see.

This was on Lake Königssee, a pristine lake in the Alps in the most southeastern part of Bavaria in the Berchtesgaden park area of Germany. The nearest large city is Salzberg, Austria, only a 20-minute ride north from here.


It is the highest-altitude lake in Germany. It is pristine, only electric boats can ferry tourists. Other than that, the only other boats allowed are rowboats. The tourist boats drop people off for mountain hiking trails (we hiked a little bit). There's a stop with a small church, St Bartholomew's (and a requisite beer garden), and the last stop, which drops you off on the trail to another lake, Lake Obersee. The moss garden is between the lakes, about a ten-minute walk.

Once you get to Lake Obersee, the walk to the other side and back was about 45 minutes each way. And VERY worthwhile. This lake is even MORE pristine than Königssee because there's NO boats on it. If you ever get to Bavaria/Salzberg, Lake Königssee is must!
The boat ride across Lake Königssee to Lake Obersee. In the winter you can walk there. But why would you?
The sleeping witch mountain. The guide pointed out the obvious -- that she's a young witch.

Looking across Lake Obersee to the Alpine meadow on the other side. Hard to tell where mountains end & reflections begin.

Looking over Obersee from the meadow. No beer garden here. But you can get milk. And meet the cow it came from.

Mossy goodness.

One of the prettiest places we've ever hiked.
You expect an Ewok to appear from behind a tree.



Comments

  1. You make me want to hop on a plane instantly. What a wonderful trip, and you have surely found the most beautiful places to visit - places I might never have know about otherwise. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gorgeous. Reminds me of my trip to Switzerland long ago. Can you imagine living in such a place? All taht nature, the vistas, my god I'd feel like a new super human! Boy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a magical place! It looks so peaceful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm floored! Absolutely speechless. Just unbelievably gorgeous...I'm practically packing my bags over here!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That is beautiful! Germany is just such a impressive place, and your photo's say a lot about the resilience of the forests after a world war 60 years ago. Those mossy forests look like the perfect peaceful place for a camp chair and a good book.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gorgeous photos and landscape. Hard to imagine that such beauty really exists in these green, moss forests. The light through the trees is awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pat/Commonweeder,
    We make travel a priority. Some friends are buying lake properties, second recreational homes. We can't conceive of that. There are too many spectacular places to visit. and who wants two homes to maintain?

    Benjamin,
    We were just about among the Switzerland border here. I can't imagine living in such a place, I'd have a mountain high all the time.

    MMD,
    It was peaceful. The loudest sounds along Lake Obersee was the cow bells ringing on occasion.

    Stacey,
    Cant yo get the magazine to send you there on "research." Make sure they give you a biergarten budget. If you need an art director, I'm willing to go back.

    Amy,
    There were only a few "homes" along the water and they were up in the hills and obviously not year-round residences. germany is a beautiful country. This was our fourth trip there. But we go for the food.

    Donna/GWGT,
    The moss forest sort of took your breath away, which was too bad because you could almost feel the oxygen being made here in all the lushness..

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts