Felsenmeer Lautertal

Thinking about the places close to our home that we haven't really visited in a long time we realized that the Felsenmeer by Lauterbach is a really interesting spot. It is located in the Odenwald area and consists of a whole bunch of huge boulders draped across the side of a hill. In between the huge rocks signs of ancient roman use can be found. Highlight is a huge column meant for a roman temple that was never transported away from the Felsenmeer, which was used as a quarry.

These days several walking circuits between 1,5 and 4,5 kilometeres of lenght lead through boulders towards the top of the hill. Some of them are usable even with a wheelchair or stroller. Leaving the paths and just climbing through the rocks is discouraged, but often done anyways.

In a few places little signs show the way to special rock formations that have been given names by the locals. There is for example "The Crocodile", or "The Box".

The Felsenmeer usually very busy with families and kids, especially on the weekends. Now due to Corona the parking lot had been closed down for a while. We hoped to have a bit more solitude because people with kids might not want to park further away and walk there.

When had parked the car and walked to the start of the Felsenmeer, there was literally no one there. Even though the car park was actually open again, there was only a group of guys using the boulders as a training area, other than that we were the only ones there - we had never seen this place so devoid of people. Later on it became apparent that this was mostly due to the time of the day.

We enjoyed the serenity and slowly made our way up towards the top of the hill, walking between the boulders and sometimes climb across them. About halfway up the hill a wooden bridge leads across the stony stream. The sunlight is already too harsh for great pictures, and it's obvious today is going to be a bright and sunny day with hardly any clouds. Maybe we should really have gotten up even earlier because the scenery sure would be a great photo opportunity in softer light.

Nevertheless the natural monument we're walking through is beautiful and stunning. Once reaching the top we take a quick break at the roman column. Many of the rocks close by show signs of the tools that were used at the times when the Felsenmeer was a roman quarry. The information center at the start of the Felsenmeer even has a model of the saws for those interested in the tools and techniques used back then.