Circular hike: Krodotal - Kleiner Burgberg - Harzburg - Path of reflection - Rabenklippe

Circular hike: Krodotal - Kleiner Burgberg - Harzburg - Path of reflection - Rabenklippe

A route through the forests around Harzberg and the Rabenklippe that mainly goes over the forest paths instead of the wider gravel roads. This makes the route both more attractive and quieter.

The hike starts in from the quiet Krodotal district of Bad Harzberg.
Free parking is possible at this location. However, because there is not much space, two alternative parking spaces are indicated as the last two waypoints on this route. One near the departure point and also free, the other a little further away on the B4 where a payment is required.
From the starting point we immediately go up quite a bit on beautiful forest paths until we reach the Kleiner Burgberg. There we first pass a bench from which we already have a view over the valley, but when we walk further and finally stand on top of the rock formation, we have an even more impressive view. (This route goes to the top in the easiest way, no need to climb on anything). From here we continue going up on more forest paths until we arrive not much further at the Harzberg.

Castle ruins Harzburg
On the northern edge of the Harz Mountains above Bad Harzburg and the Radautal in Lower Saxony, the ruins of the Great Harz Castle sit on the Great Castle Hill at a height of about 485 meters. Those who don't want to walk up can use the Burgberg cable car. Once built by King Heinrich IV from 1065 to 1068 in a strategically favourable location, only fragments of the fountains, towers and foundation walls of the Great Harz Castle remain today. Originally, the castle served to secure the imperial palace of Goslar. The walls used to reach the steep edge of the mountain cone, which made the castle almost impregnable. The extremely well-fortified castle housed a collegiate church and a three-room palace as well as a generally magnificent interior. The bones of Konrad II and his son Heinrich are stored in the family crypt.
At the beginning of the Saxon War in 1073, Henry IV fled to the Harzburg with his crew of around 300. According to legend, he escaped unnoticed through the well and a secret passage outside. After his defeat and the Peace of Gerstungen on February 2, 1074, Henry IV agreed to the destruction of the Harzburg. He had the towers and walls knocked down, but refrained from destroying the other buildings. The complete destruction took place in 1074 by angry farmers, which also went hand in hand with the desecration of the family crypt. Henry was so angry that he crushed the rebellious Saxons at the Battle of Homburg an der Unstrut in June 1075. Emperor Friedrich I rebuilt the castle by 1180 and had Emperor Otto IV complete his work. This died in 1218. Several changes of ownership followed. In the 15th century, the Great Harz Castle was owned by the von Schwicheldt brothers and became a robber baron fortress. The castle fell into disrepair over time. Around 1650, the remaining parts were removed, leaving only what can be seen today. However, some replicas, for example of the foundation walls of a tower, are open to the public.
( https://www.harz-travel.de/Regionales/Harz-Sehenswuerdigkeiten-Highlights/Burgruine-Harzburg/ )

In 1877, the 19-meter high "Canossa Column" was erected on the site of the former castle. Archaeological investigations of the remains of the Harzburg in the ground were carried out in the years 1902 to 1904, in 1959 and from 1970 to 1975.

You can visit some restored parts of the Harzburg today. These include the "powder tower", the castle fountain, parts of the gate system and the remains of the castle walls. The former locations of various buildings such as the round tower and palace are also marked with stones.

Shortly after we have left the castle ruins, we pass the starting point of the BaumschwebeBahn HARZ. But of course, we continue our journey on foot and soon arrive at a crossroads where we have to pay close attention to take the right road to continue. The path we have to take is marked with the name Besinnungsweg. This is a nice forest path along which from time-to-time benches have been placed with texts that invite you to reflect on philosophical matters. At the fourth reflection point we leave this trail and continue our hike, still through a nice area with forest. At some point we come to a T-junction where we have the choice between the "Schwierige weg" or the easier option. We keep to the left for the more challenging route. Soon it will become clear that there is nothing difficult on the "Schwierige weg", there may be some more stones but that will be all.

Walking this part, no one can miss that there are whole areas of trees dead. How did that happen?

We can find an interesting reflection on the causes of the tree dieback on the blog "the Reisefeder":
The Lower Saxony State Forests inform about the forest change in the Harz Mountains. You can clearly see that something dramatic is happening here: Entire spruce monocultures tower dry and silver-grey into the sky. Drought and storms have hit them so hard in recent years that they can no longer develop enough tree resin. They usually use this to ward off pests such as the bark beetle. These beetles could now infest entire areas, easily killing tree by tree in the monoculture. That's why we hear again and again that the bark beetle is to blame for the dying of spruces in the Harz Mountains. But this is wrong. The bug only does what a bug has to do. Humans first opened all the doors to it through anthropogenic climate change with its increasing weather extremes (drought!) and through the consistent destruction of a resilient mixed forest. Doing so the the formerly natural forest was transformed into a tree field with non-site-appropriate trees (at least not here, in the lower altitudes). Blaming a bug for this disaster now doesn't count.
(source: https://reisefeder.de/2021/07/harz-sagenhafte-felsen-im-okertal/ )

We continue our hike until we arrive at the next point of interest: the Rabenklippe

the Rabenklippe
At the Rabenklippe, which became a popular hiking destination in the 19th century, a shelter hut was built in 1874, from which the Rabenklippe forest inn emerged.
A part of the Rabenklippe has been made accessible by steps. From there you can see, among other things, the Brocken, down into the Eckertal and to the Taubenklippe on the other side of the Eckertal. The cliff is included as No. 170 in the system of stamping points of the Harzer hiking system (Harzer Wandernadel) The stamp box is hanging at the Rabenklippe forest inn. You have to walk across the terrace and through the bay window of the inn to get to the box.
Near the Rabenklippe there is also an observation point to look into the lynx cage that is located in the forest next to it.
And for those who need it, there is also a bus stop.

From the Rabenklippe we go back to our starting point, walking as much as possible on narrower forest paths instead of the wider gravel roads that have been made in this area to accommodate the many tourist hikers.

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