Heinrich Heine Trail (Ilse Valley) – Lower Ilse Falls loop from Ilsenburg

Hiking trails & Routes

Heinrich Heine Trail (Ilse Valley) – Lower Ilse Falls loop from Ilsenburg

Hard

4.9

(167)

505

hikers

Heinrich Heine Trail (Ilse Valley) – Lower Ilse Falls loop from Ilsenburg

07:42

24.5km

770m

Hiking

Hard hike. Very good fitness required. Mostly walkable paths. Sure-footedness required. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: August 28, 2026

Tips

Your route passes through protected areas

Please check local regulations for:

Nationalpark Harz

Waypoints

Start point

Train Station

Get Directions

1.66 km

Nagelhüttenteich

Lake

4.54 km

Frog Rock

Highlight • Natural Monument

Don't be careful 💋 otherwise, well who knows.
Beautiful rock formation

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7.06 km

Ilse Valley

Highlight • Gorge

The path always goes along the roaring Ilse. Very nice.

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7.24 km

Heinrich Heine Trail (Ilse Valley)

Highlight • Trail

Nature lovers should definitely prefer the hiking trail along the Ilse to the gravel road. The stony path is easy to walk when the brook splashes, surrounded by trees and rocks.

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7.72 km

Lower Ilse Falls

Highlight • Waterfall

The Ilsetal is always worth a trip, regardless of the season.

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9.40 km

Upper Ilse Falls

Highlight • Waterfall

The Ilse Falls plunge leisurely over a distance of one kilometer about 120 meters into the beautiful Ilsetal. The roaring Ilse can be heard from afar. The picturesque river has …

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12.8 km

Ferdinandstein (HWN 16)

Highlight • Natural Monument

The Ferdinand stone is reminiscent of the last free-living wolf, which was killed by Count Ferdinand to Stolberg-Wernigerode and is located on Schindelstieg above Ilsenburg.

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13.7 km

Viewpoint

19.5 km

Paternoster Cliff

Highlight • Natural Monument

The paternoster cliff is located about 2.8 kilometers south-southwest of the Ilsenburg core town. At the rock formation the trail leads from Ilsestein to Plessenburg

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20.6 km

Ilsestein (HWN 030)

Highlight • Viewpoint

The vantage point in the Ilsetal!
Stamp point of the Harzer hiking pin and on weekends there is also a summit beer.

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24.5 km

End point

Train Station

Way Types & Surfaces

Way Types

12.1 km

5.05 km

4.14 km

2.75 km

445 m

Surfaces

11.1 km

9.62 km

3.21 km

462 m

< 100 m

Elevation

Nothing selected – click and drag below to see the stats for a specific part of the route.

Weather

Sunday 8 November

6°C

1°C

0 %

Additional weather tips

Max wind speed: 7.0 km/h

to get more detailed weather forecasts along your route

Comments

April 3, 2022,Ilsenburgtour

It was a wonderful tour, the Oberharz in the snow is magically beautiful. My time management was much better this time. However, I would need a good GPS device. Can anyone recommend me one?

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July 22, 2023,Ums Ilsetal💦💦💦 und ein Stück weiter😉

Today's tour took us to Ilsenburg. We started relatively early (by my standards🤣...I like to sleep in) at 8.30 a.m., so that we were even able to get the free parking spaces😉.

Surprisingly, it was very quiet around the Ilsetal today, so that we could really enjoy the round 😀.

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July 8, 2022,So viele Stempel

A beautiful big round with many stamps and stopped at the Darlingerode monastery on the way back - a very great place with overnight accommodation!

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November 17, 2023,𝐀𝐮𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐚𝐬 𝐈𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥 🍂🥾

~ Through the wildly romantic Ilsetal - or cliff hike the 2nd ~

My personal favorite valley in the Harz so far is the Bodetal. But there are people like @Stefanie who claim that the Ilsetal is the most beautiful valley in the Harz! So today it was high time to take a look at the Ilsetal!

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May 7, 2023,Ilsetal (HWN 30,7,6,8,16,24,25)

I am Princess Ilse and I live in Ilsestein.
come with me to my castle, we want to be happy.

Heinrich Heine from the Harz Journey 1824

Not only Goethe could describe the beauty of the Harz Mountains. ☺️

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May 24, 2023,Ilsestein, Wolfsklippe, Ferdinandsstein, Plessenburg (HWN 6, 7, 8, 16, 24, 25, 30)

Harzer hiking needle stamp:
======================

HWN 6 - Ilse Falls-Bremer Hut
HWN 7 - Plessenburg
HWN 8 - stamped beech
HWN 16 - Ferdinand stone
HWN 24 - Wolf Cliff
HWN 25 - Chief Forester Koch Monument
HWN 30 - Ilsestein

There are more than 80 more of our Harz Hiking Pin tours here:
komoot.de/collection/1228491/-harzer-wandernadel-touren

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June 7, 2026,🌳🌲🏞🌤7 ♟️auf einen Streich durch das Ilsetal 😍HWN 6,7,8,16,23,25,30🤗l

We've already seen many tours and photos from the Ilsetal here, and today we were able to convince ourselves of this natural beauty. You can see it from the sheer number of pictures 🙈🤭😂 Heinrich Heine already found it beautiful here too 😉 We had planned for 5 stamps. On the map, 25 and 23 were not far away, so …

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April 28, 2024,Rundtour Ilsenburg

Today's tour around the Ilsetal was quite challenging with almost 20 km and the elevation gain. But you can make a really big haul on the HWN stamp hunt. 🙂
Today's haul was:
HWN 006 Obere Ilsefälle
HWN 008 Stempelsbuche
HWN 016 Ferdinandsstein
HWN 024 Wolfsklippe
HWN 025 Oberförster Koch Denkmal
HWN 007 Plessenburg
HWN 030 Ilsestein
The "Wanderkaiser Danny …

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