Mountains, witches, stamping stations, and a national park. What do they have to do with one another? It’s all a part of the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg, a 94 km-long hike through Germany’s Harz Forest. And, this hike is one of the few in Germany you can do like a traditional backpacking thru-hike!
Table of Contents
Where is the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg?
The Harzer-Hexen-Stieg is located in central Germany in the Harz Forest. The forest and national park spans two states in Germany: Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony. This is significant because the East-West German border runs right through the middle, meaning at one point in time, it was not possible hike this route. The entire border region between East and West Germany is a nature preserve called Grünes Band (the green band), and can be hiked and cycled in the north-south direction.
If you’d like to explore more of the Harz, I recommend Wernigerode and Goslar!
How long is the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg?
The trail is 94 kilometers long and can be hiked in 5 to 7 legs. There are a few variations for the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg. The first is whether or not you want to summit the Brocken. I don’t see why you wouldn’t on your first trip to the Harz, as it is one of the region’s highlights. Should you not want to go up, there is a long detour (34.4 km) around called the Brocken Umgehung.
Another option comes into play with the southern or northern route for the fourth section of the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg. We chose the northern route so that we could do the detour over the hanging bridge. Both routes are approximately 28-29 km long. If you hike in the winter, the Bode valley is closed on the fifth section, so there is an 8km detour from Treseburg to Thale. You can find all sections and look at them in detail here. It is possible to hike the trail in both directions. I was satisfied with our decision to hike from West to East.
Accommodation on the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg
The Harzer-Hexen-Stieg is one of the few hikes I’ve come across in Germany which you can do by thru-hiking with a tent. If camping isn’t for you, there are several guest houses and B&Bs on the way, which you can book through the Harz App or Harz Info. We found it challenging to book things that weren’t too far from the trail, which is how we got the idea to camp. Others we met along the way had found AirBnb’s or holiday apartments to stay in.
Wild Camping isn’t allowed in Germany
Wild camping isn’t allowed in Germany, and for good reason. The country is just too densely populated and has too many outdoor freaks for wild camping to be possible. The woods would be utter anarchy and totally ravished. You should NOT wild camp in Germany, otherwise there will be no nature left for anyone. Luckily, on the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg it is possible to camp at official campsites for 3 out of 4 nights of the 5 day hike. This gives the feel of being a backpacking tour because you can still carry all of your own stuff and be self-sufficient. For another backpacking-like hike in Germany, check out the Westweg (there you can sleep in huts).
Campgrounds
There are several campgrounds throughout the Harz, which make it possible to complete the route by camping. Camping Prahljust is around 400 m off trail and makes a great first night coming from Osterode. Continuing on, there are no campgrounds for night two, but the youth hostel in Torfhaus is a good option for budget travel. You must be a member of the DJH in order to stay there, but this is easily organized same day.
For the third evening you could camp in Shierke or in Elbingerode. Camping in Shierke makes the fourth day extremely long, but it would be possible to find accommodation in Königshütte to break it up. We camped in Elbingerode, which was a ways off the trail, but kept our daily mileage reasonable. For our final night, we took a detour from the trail to hike over the hanging bridge, so the campsite at the Talsperre was en route. If you follow the north route without going over the hanging bridge, you can make a small detour to get to this campsite as well. When we arrived in Thale, we got the bus/train back to Berlin, but there are many accommodation options in Thale if you choose to stay, including Klostercamping.
Trail marker and Passport
The trail marker for the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg is a green witch’s profile on a white background. Though this trail is a Quality Hike, I didn’t find it to be so well marked. I was happy to have a physical map and the Komoot app. Due to the many trees which have fallen in the past few years because of storms and the bark beetle, trail markers are missing and routes have been rerouted. It is important to follow all signage for detours. We could see that they are working on reimplementing the trail markers, but the damage from the beetle is massive and there are often no trees on which to place new markers.
Like many other hikes in Germany, there is a passport system for the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg. You can get a passport specifically for this hike, but also for the entire Harz region. In total there are 222 stamps to collect! If you get all 222, you can become a Wanderkaiser (hiking emperor!). Don’t worry, you just need 11 stamps to get the pin to claim having hiked the Hexen-Stieg, but collecting them was a lot of fun!
Maja and I got 16 stamps on our 5-day hike which allowed us to get the bronze and silver awards as well the Harzer-Hexen-Steig award. You can order a passport online (Hexen Stieg or complete Harz) and have it mailed directly to you, or pick one up at the tourism office in Osterode, Thale, or on the Brocken.
Quality Hike
The Harzer-Hexen-Stieg is an awarded Quality Hike. This means that the trail has been certified by the Deutsche Wanderverband according to many criteria. These criteria ensure that there is enough variety of landscapes, pleasant hiking surfaces, enough rest spots, and excellent trail markers for the entire route.
You can learn more about Quality and Premium Hikes here. Read on below to see how our trip on the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg went! If you enjoy this hike, check out the Westweg, another Quality Hike in Germany, and the Malerweg, my favorite hike ever!
Harzer-Hexen-Stieg Day 1
My friend, Maja, who I met on the Malerweg, asked me to join her on the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg this summer. And I couldn’t wait to try out this route! I had been to the Harz Mountains a few times before for climbing weekends and to hike the Brocken, but hadn’t yet gotten to check out this legendary trail. We decided to begin in Osterode and hike eastwards. It was possible to leave Berlin early Monday morning and arrive at noon, even with the usual missed connecting train (I have never made it to the Harz without missing a connection. DB, smh).
Here’s our Komoot tour for day 1. Follow me on Komoot!
Osterode to Prahljust – 12.5 km
We went straight to the tourism office to get our hiking passports because the office closes at 1pm and reopens at 2pm, and we needed to hit the road. We were able to get the Hexenstieg Stempelpass and the Harz Stempelpass for 6.50€. These are the passports in which you collect your stamps. Right after the tourism office there is a Sonderstempel, an extra stamp, near the town square.
Starting the hike
As we walked through town, we already noticed several hikers. It was easy to find the start and follow the route. A few times we used my map to be sure. We found the two other official stamping stations on our way to the campsite. The first one was at the Eselsplatz (donkey place), which was called this because they used to rest here on their trips between the villages.
On the way, we passed many sculptures of witches.
Berries, berries, berries!
There were so many blackberries and raspberries along the way – an easy way to make me fall in love with any hike. They were so ripe they fell into our hands as we picked them. Unfortunately, the hike the first day was a wide, forest ranger road most of the way. But it meant that we could easily hike and chat the whole way, all the while never getting lost.
At the second stamp station were between two beautiful lakes. Here we met two women with two young girls who informed us that they were already Wanderprincessinnen, hiking princesses. At first I thought they were joking around, but it’s true! I later read my passport, and kids (or actually, anyone) need to get 11 stamps to become a hiking prince or princess.
There were more amazing views along the way, including Marienblick where a ski lift came up. There was lots of evidence of the Borkenkäfer (bark beetle), because there were lots of dead trees and cleared areas.
Camping Prahljust
On the last meters to the camp, there were so many tiny thumbnail sized frogs/toads hopping along. It’s amazing how high and far they jumped for their size. I couldn’t stop saying how cute they were! And we saw them in the morning on our way back to the trail too. The first 12km of the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg weren’t bad, but I was happy to put down my pack and remove my shoes when we got to camp.
For our first night, we camped at Camping Prahljust. It’s just a few hundred meters off the trail once you reach the paved road. They have a nice little lake on site where you can watch the sunset. I had a great time observing a family of Great Crested Grebes feed on a giant crayfish.
Harzer-Hexen-Steig Day 2
The night was freezing, but luckily the sun warmed us early in the morning. We set off and right away met many pairs hiking the trail. Some planned to stay in the huts (though this is not permitted!) and others had already booked holiday apartments or the expensive resort in Torfhaus.
Here is our Komoot tour for day 2.
Prahljust to Torfhaus – 22.2 km
The second day of our hike had us mostly on forest trails, though there was very little forest due to the Borkenkäfer. It was hard to find a spot to pee because everything was so open and so many people kept passing by. The landscape is more like a heath, and full of beautiful wildflowers. The openness allows lots of sun for the berries, but I felt like I saw nearly no birds because there are no trees for them.
Berries and French fries
Today there were even more berries than yesterday. There were raspberries (my absolute favorite) all over the place, which is unusual because it is much more common to see blackberries. We even picked wild strawberries. I was in heaven. I was so upset that I had no Tupperware boxes to pack them into. You could stand in one spot and pick for a while, or just pick as you walked along. Along the way we stopped for an opportunity to eat at the Waldgaststube Dammhaus. Here we shared a plate of Käsespätzle and a portion of French fries. The cakes looked fabulous too, but we decided to get going.
We got some more stamps and walked along many little creeks. In the national park, the signs changed from the white metal ones to brown wooden ones. The final climb up to Torfhaus was a big one. It might be the hardest on the trail, but that may also be because it was the end of a long day for us.
Sleeping in the Youth Hostel
For the night, there are no campsites far and wide. We called the youth hostel in advance, but they had told us there were no more beds. Our plan was to try anyways when we arrived. If we couldn’t get a bed there, we would stay in the swanky resort. We got lucky. There was a room with a few beds open. We even had our own bathroom. The view out of our window faced the Brocken, one of the biggest highlights on the trail and the highlight of the following day.
Harzer-Hexen-Stieg Day 3
Day three is when we summited the Brocken. The Brocken is eastern and northern Germany’s tallest mountain at 1141 m or 3743 ft.
Torfhaus to Elbigerode – 28 km
We got a good breakfast at the hostel and set off around 8:15. Shortly after leaving, though the signs were pretty great, we got lost. Somehow we had missed one sign and realized at the next crossing that there were no witches (the witch is the trail marker of the HHS). But we did get an extra stamp for going that way (a special stamp which didn’t count towards the 222). We also saw a cool lynx monument for the bringing back of the lynx to the Harz. So maybe it was worth the extra kilometer (though today would be our longest day).
The Brocken
Back on trail, we made it to the hut where our first official stamp of the day was and took a break. The walk to the Brocken was then quick. We met the concrete path for the Grünes Band, the former inner-German border. In no time we reached the train tracks and followed them a bit on the road before breaking away to head up to the top. The train loops around again to reach the summit. At the top we saw the train arrive, though we heard it a lot as we climbed the last 2 km and could sometimes see the smoke.
The view at the top was awesome! We had a surprisingly clear view. The Brocken is known for having horrible visibility. The last time I was there, you could barely see 10 steps ahead. Of course, we spent a good amount of time getting photos and selfies. After all, the Brocken is one of the region’s biggest attractions.
At the top we got our stamps in the shop and then headed to the Tourismus Saal to get something to eat. Maja invited me to French fries and cake. When we got back outside, it had become much busier than when we arrived. We wanted to go see the boulder at the very top. There were so many people there to take picture with it that we just looked around. When we saw the sign for the direction of Berlin, we took a picture with that instead.
Sonderstempel and other surprises along the way
Finally satisfied with seeing everything there was at the top, we began the decent, which was probably more challenging than the ascent. It seemed to go downhill forever. Along the way there was a cool boardwalk path heading away from our route to the left. Maja could see a stamp station in the distance so we decided to go the 100m or so to get another Sonderstempel. It was the Urwald Weg. And it only went as far as the stamp into the forest to teach about the dying trees, what kinds and how many species live here, and the importance of dead wood in a forest. It was really interesting and worth checking out.
As we hiked down, the heat was unrelenting. And there was next to no shade to hide under. Most picnic tables and benches were in direct sun. We saw lots of beautiful wildflowers, busy bees, and fluttering butterflies.
From the map, we knew another spot where we could leave the trail briefly and get an extra stamp. It turns out this stamp was not only part of the 222, but also counted towards the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg booklet! We sat under the stamp station with another hiker because it happened to be partially shaded. We talked about where we had started, where we were going, and which camps we were staying in.
When we got up we saw that there was a Klippe right there (which was what the stamp was for). The Harz is full of these Klippen, or piles of granite rocks with a special kind of “wool sack” erosion. We climbed up the Klippe and enjoyed the view.
Along the way to the next Klippe, we could see several rock formations on top of the ridge to our left. We took a long break at the next one and I even took off my shoes. We spent a while chatting with some day hikers.
Hohnehof
After that we looked forward to the Hohnehof which the first hiker told us about. But the signs made us think we wouldn’t get there. Turns out, following the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg signs, we did walk right past the Hohnehof and could enjoy their tasty snacks. The Hof is adorable with lots of wooden sculptures of ravens and berries. We had cake and Krauterlimo, a soft drink made with herbs.
Camping am Brocken in Elbingerode
Soon after our snack break we were through Drei Annen Hohne. Then we left the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg in order to get to the campsite in Elbingerode. We stopped at a hut once more to rest before the final kilometers into town. The day had been long and hot, but we were in surprisingly good moods. We walked past a beautiful lake which was called Christinensee (like me!) and then into camp.
There were a few ladies in the camp office when we arrived. When they heard that we had started the day in Torfhaus, we were met with applause and exclamations of incredulity. “What? All the way from Torfhaus? No way!” We felt like celebrities. I was just happy that we could buy noodles there since I forgot the rice and lentils at home. Otherwise I would have had to walk even further to the Edeka to get dinner.
Since dinner was set we jumped into the lake. Well, we walked into the very shallow pond and dunked up to our shoulders. Showered. Cooked. Slept.
Harzer-Hexen-Stieg Day 4
Despite the longest day having been day 3, day 4 was a struggle. We started out the day thinking we only had a short 12 km to go. At kilometer 9, we realized that it’s more than 3 km to the end…like 10 more.
Elbingerode to the Hanging Bridge – 19 km
It was already hot when we left camp. We walked into town and stopped at the church. I left my pack with Maja to run to the supermarket for the lentils and rice I had planned to bring with me.
It felt like forever to reach the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg again. Along the way we saw a fox and got a stamp at the Tagebau, an above ground mine, where they extract limestone. We finally reached the trail at the reservoir after a bit of bushwalking. I was already tired and couldn’t wait to sit on the empty bench we had seen from the hill. As we reached it, there were people sitting on it! Like a backwards mirage! We took a break on the ground instead and got our stamp.
Now the trail was along the Bode stream. It was a bit cooler in the shade but that didn’t last long. When we were nearing the town of Rubeland, we lost the trail marker for a bit and just followed the road. Today we saw almost no other hikers, and no Hexen-Stieg hikers.
We hiked up a mountain and got a stamp at the viewpoint over Rubeland. It was a nice view. Then we hiked steeply down back to the Bode. It was in the shade, but it was still hot. We wished for a breeze too, but the air was suffocatingly still.
In the next town, we were looking forward to the Gaststätte but when we arrived it said “Closed. For hotel guests only.” We sat at the bus stop to have a break because the bench was covered from the sun. Then Maja realized around the side we could go down to the water. We left our packs, walked down under the bridge, took off our shoes, and dipped our feet in. At first I couldn’t really tell if it was cold, but my feet and ankles felt relief. A family came down to do the same and told us that they became Wander Kaiser today, collecting all 222 stamps!
When we put on our shoes again we felt really good and began the next ascent. It was about 4 more km of unmarked trail for the detour over the hanging bridge. The Harzer-Hexen-Stieg doesn’t go over the bridge, but a detour is possible to include it, which we definitely wanted to do. Once there we paid the 6€ entry fee, bought some snacks (ice cream and Fanta) and then scanned our tickets to walk over the bridge.
The view with or without the bridge is amazing. The river below is beautiful and we saw lots of carp and ducks. People were ziplining across and we even heard the scream of one person doing something like a bungee jump swing. We walked slowly over the bridge to take in and enjoy the view. It’s over 400 m long!
Then it was a short, though painful, final kilometer along the road to the campsite. We felt more exhausted today than yesterday. It was so warm that we left the rainfly off of the tent for a while. We finally cooked the lentils and rice curry I had promised Maja for weeks.
Harzer-Hexen-Stieg Day 5
In the early morning it rained and even thundered. We had some luck with a window from 7-8am that the rain let up and we could quickly pack and eat breakfast. The outer tent was still wet, but everything else remained dry.
Hanging Bridge to Thale – 21.4 km
We first hiked up to an outlook point. The way there wasn’t the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg, but still part of the detour over the bridge. Once we got to the hut at the top, we were on trail. It drizzled as we hiked up. There was momentarily a clear view into the valley before it began to sprinkle again. The hut had a summit book to sign. When we flipped through, we noticed a pair had been there the day before who were both Wanderkaiser! They each had their own stamp which they placed into the book.
Most of the day we hiked along the Bode. I had expected the trail next to the river to be flat, but it felt like we went up and down constantly. We had better moods than yesterday despite still being very sore.
The landscape was really cool but pictures never do something like this justice because it’s too much to take in. The trail was sometimes next to and sometimes above the water on a small path. At times it was a steep ravine down to the river. We stopped once to put our feet into the water. It’s amazing what a difference you feel after that!
Although there were just as many kilometers as yesterday, the final day seemed to fly by. Just before reaching the restaurant on the trail, we met two groups of people who asked us about the Hexen-Tanz-Platz, a famous site in Thale where the witches dance. We told the hikers it was probably not the right way. We showed them our map, where we had come from and where the trail to the Hexen-Tanz-Platz was. They all went back in the direction they came from, the same in which we were going. Then a third person walked towards us and asked if we were the ladies with the map (lol!).
At the Gaststätte we had Waldmeister limo and fries. When we got to Thale there was a gondola to the top of the mountain and a fun looking kids theme park. On sore feet, we wobbled on to the official start point in front of the train station. There is the tourism office where we got our passports checked. We both got silver and the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg pins. He told us we could also get the Hiking Princess pin too if we wanted, but two were enough!
Harzer-Hexen-Stieg
I had so much fun on the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg. Despite the recent abrupt changes to the landscape, I still really enjoyed the scenery. It will be interesting to see how the region regenerates and changes over the next several years. Will you hike the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg?
Komoot Tracks for all 5 days on the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg with camping!
Komoot is a fantastic app for hiking. I was skeptical about using my phone while hiking at first, but Frank convinced me! Here are the routes for each day, just “save for offline use” and off you go!