Hintersee

Hintersee is a 16-hectare mountain lake near Ramsau, below the steep walls of Reiteralm and Hochkalter at the entrance to Klausbachtal. It’s a strong short stop: the nearly flat circuit gives you clear water, boulder-strewn banks and mountain views, with walks into Zauberwald and the valley close by. Several parking areas serve the shore, but visitors report tougher parking at busy times; bus 846 from Berchtesgaden reaches Hintersee too.

Give the 2.7 km circuit about an hour; it gains only 11 m and is stroller-friendly. The Zauberwald loop is a different kind of outing: about 2 km, with 55 m uphill and 59 m downhill, on a steeper, uneven path through rocks and rushing water. It isn’t suitable for strollers. Combine the forest and shore for more variety, or stick to the lake if you want an easy circuit.

You can rent a rowboat or pedal boat, and the small electric passenger boat Annerl runs in summer. Cafés and inns on the far shore make that side a good place to stop for a meal or a drink.

On clear days, the steep walls of Reiteralm and Hochkalter show up in the water. Early morning can bring a little ground fog, with the peaks and Blaueiskar and Blaueis Glacier reflected on still water. For a phone photo, include one of the shore boulders in the foreground to give the mountains scale.

About 3,500 years ago, a huge rockslide dammed the Klausbach and formed Hintersee. The slide carried an estimated 12 to 16 million cubic metres of rock down 3.7 km; buried wood found in a borehole was dated to around the same time, in the Bronze Age.

Water flowing out of the lake has carved deep channels between the boulders in Zauberwald, a forest geotope recognized among Bavaria’s most beautiful. The footpath was first made in 1896–97, and the name Zauberwald took hold in the 1920s.

Hintersee began drawing landscape painters around 1850. Carl Rottmann, Ferdinand Waldmüller, Friedrich Gauermann and Wilhelm Busch were among the artists associated with the lake; a signposted painters’ trail interprets their work.

At the valley entrance, the national park’s Klausbachhaus information point has a two-floor exhibit on alpine farming and alpine-pasture life. The house itself isn’t barrier-free, but there’s a wheelchair-accessible outdoor toilet, and a barrier-free circular path starts there.