Adventurous and wild

 

The Wutach Gorge, cut between sixty and one hundred and seventy meters deep, is the epitome of a nature reserve in Germany. It stretches for 35 kilometers between Neustadt and Achdorf, and the area from Kappel to Wutach has been a nature reserve since 1939. The fascinating thing about this area is not only the torrent with its unhindered course, but also the richness of species among plants and animals as well as the geological peculiarities. In fact, the Wutach Gorge is the only untouched low mountain stream in Germany and thus of immense importance from a landscape-historical point of view.

 

From its source to its mouth in the Rhine, the total watercourse is 91 kilometers long and overcomes a difference in altitude of 1,125 meters. However, it is not called Wutach along its entire stretch. It rises at an altitude of 1,440 meters above sea level near Seebuck, the side mountain of the Feldberg, and is still called Seebach here. Thus, the source is only nine meters lower than the peak of Seebuck. A 62 meter high waterfall follows before the Seebach flows through the Feldsee on the northeastern flank of the Seebuck at 1,109 meters above sea level. Afterwards, the Seebach continues in the Bärental valley until it reaches the lake Titisee, which it also crosses. At the outflow, the watercourse is then called Gutach. It flows on to Neustadt until it meets the confluence of the Haslach shortly after the Gutach bridge of the Höllental Railways.

 

The river Wutach is formed here by the confluence of Gutach and Haslach not far from Kappel. Shortly before the two waters meet, their valleys already become gorge-like and are deeply incised. There the nature reserve begins in both valleys. The Wutach winds only briefly through the gorge before another gorge enters from the north, the Rötenbachschlucht. From here, the Wutach turns south and flows as far as the Räuberschlössle before continuing its course to the east. After a while, the Lotenbachklamm gorge opens up to the south, containing four waterfalls of up to eight meters in height, as well as a side stream, which in turn plunges into the gorge from a height of twenty meters.

 

Very close to the confluence of the Lotenbachklamm and the Wutacht Gorge is the Schattenmühle. There you can fortify yourself in an inn before continuing your hike.

 

Downstream the landscape changes. The river Wutach leaves the upper gorge and enters a valley with a wider bottom. Whereas the bedrock was previously granite with an upper layer of red sandstone, it now consists of shell limestone. From here one reaches Dietfurt and further to the former Bad Boll, where from the south the Boller waterfall pours into the Wutach, with its two steps and a drop height of forty meters the highest waterfall within the Wutach Gorge. Not far away follows the Tannegg waterfall. On the other side of the river is an 84 meter long cave called Münzloch. The rock walls are now increasingly made of limestone. The mosses that grow on them extract carbonic acid from the calcareous water, causing the limestone to solidify and form as sintered rock.

 

After Bad Boll the valley narrows considerably, this is called the Middle Gorge. The hiking trail now runs above the river Wutach, nestled against the rock face. This takes you to the Schurhammerhütte, where you have the opportunity to take a break. On its further way, the Wutach inclines to the northeast and partially seeps into the subsoil. In very dry phases, the above-ground river bed can even dry up completely. After the Rümmelesteg, the Wutach flows eastward again, and about two kilometers after the seepage, the water emerges again after having flowed through a cave system. From the north, the Gauchach meets the river shortly after. The Gauchach Gorge is also protected until shortly before Döggingen. From the confluence of the Gauchach it is not far to the Wutachmühle, where the Wutach Gorge nature reserve ends.

 

In its further course, the Wutach turns southwest with the so-called "Wutachknie" ("Wutach knee") near Achdorf and leaves the Black Forest. In its lower valley follows the Lower Gorge, the so-called "Wutachflühen". This section extends between Achdorf and Grimmelshofen. In addition, the river now forms the border between Germany and Switzerland for about six kilometers in two sections before it flows into the Rhine at a sea level of 315 meters.

 

The fact that the Wutach Gorge was a considerable traffic obstacle in the past can be seen in a difference between the Black Forest dialects north and south of it. In the north, the "K" at the beginning of a word (e.g. "Kasten" ("box")) is pronounced as in Standard High German, so in dialect one says "Kaschte". In the south, however, it becomes "Ch" (as in "rauchen"). There it is consequently called "Chaschte".

 

What makes the Wutach Gorge very interesting for geologists are the constant changes that take place there. Thus, in the course of the last decades, rocks have collapsed or slipped several times, and the landscape is in constant motion. All these processes can be observed here unhindered, that is, without man interfering with them or stopping them. Thus, the Wutach Gorge provides valuable information for the study of geological events.

 

It is worth mentioning that from the Seebach more than half of its water is tapped just above the mouth into the Feldsee. It is diverted into the lake Schluchsee and ultimately fed to the hydroelectric system there.

 

In addition to the Wutach Gorge, there are other gorge-like valleys in the Black Forest. Particularly impressive is the four-kilometer-long Ravenna Gorge, a constriction above the valley Höllental. It contains two waterfalls, the larger one has a drop of 16 meters.