Wild, Untamed Adventures

Wild Waters

The Wild Waters alpine path takes you up to Riesach waterfall. In 2 stages, the water plunges 140 meters down to the Untertal valley below. This is, in fact, the highest waterfall in Styria. After an initial winding walk via a steep, though wide path with steps, in about 30 minutes we reach the alpine trail, which extends out through a canyon alongside the flowing waters of the Riesachbach. A wonderful opportunity to experience the primal power of water in an impressive way. Especially in springtime after the snowmelt, this affords us a magnificent natural spectacle. The trail does demand surefootedness and a head for heights – yet it is still suitable for children and highly popular. The descent takes us down a forestry road that can be enjoyed by everyone. This road can also be used to comfortably reach the Obere Gfölleralm without having to use the alpine trail.

More information can be found HERE

Wörschachklamm Gorge

Constantly swirling and eddying through the area, the Wörschachbach has excavated a path through the rocks over thousands of years.

In the late 1800s, merchants and horse-drawn carts would make their way through this canyon. At the upper entrance to the gorge, above today's trail, you can still see abutments chiseled into the rock. They once served as supports for the girders of a steep bridge. For the most part, however, the path led alongside the stream bed, the course of which has changed several times of the years.

Later, once the arduous travel by horse and cart had been abandoned, this same route was still used for transportation of lumber with the aid of traditional sleds.
 
Such forms of transportation, used both for wood and charcoal, which was produced at the facility at the upper mouth of the gorge, also ceased over time - not least as a consequence of several major accidents.
 

The Fascination of Water
The construction of the gorge trail was a pioneering achievement. Initiator of the work was then owner of the sawmill, Gabriel Schally from Maitschern near Wörschach, who made a decisive contribution to the success of this work.
 
Nowadays, secure footbridges and walkways lead through this wild, romantic natural monument. High above the gorge trial, observant visitors will be able to see the rocky caves which the waters have eroded into the mountainsides.

Info:

• Open: May to October, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.
• Contact: Jutta Lux, Tel. +43(0)676-87837334, Wörschach village hall, Tel. +43(0)3682-22301

  Entrance Prices

  Adult	€ 3.00
  Child	€ 2.00
  Groups (of 15 or more / person)	€ 2,50
  Children's groups (of 15 or more / person)	€ 1,80
  Annual Pass	€ 7.00

Donnersbachklamm Gorge

At the end of the last Ice Age, as the glaciers began to retreat in the mountains, alpine cirques were formed and the streams dug themselves deep into the soft (quartz) phyllite rock which predominated in much of the Ennstal valley. The narrow, V-shaped valley created by the erosion made transportation very difficult, especially when it came to the most important building and fuel material of that time, wood. Which is why, even from earliest times, use was made of the water's power, transporting tree trunks in the roaring waters of the snowmelt-gorged Donnersbach to the valley below. Where the valley widened, a grill structure was created to capture the floating timber. The last such transportation of wood occurred back in 1961, and in 1962 the grills were dismantled and removed.

Today, you can take a walk of around 15 minutes to an original woodcutter's hut and the model of such as timber grill - it is here that the natural monument begins. As we continue along the old trail used by the woodcutters, our path  takes us via footbridges and stairs to the roofed main bridge over the Donnersbach. There then come more steps as we approach the "Klammsteigruhe" before the tunnel. At this point we leave the core area of the gorge. Steps now take us to the Donnersbachwalder Straße, while the forestry lane on the far side of the road leads us back to our original starting point.