Alteburg Mountain (620 m) with a Celtic refuge

Anyone who walks in nature not only for exercise but as an essential contribution to one's quality of life will acknowledge that the aim of a long-distance hike is not simply to walk along a circular path, but rather, to increase with every step the distance to the starting point. A small foretaste to quite a "big" long-distance hike —as, for example, that offered by a one-week hike in Hunsrück along Ausonius Way from Bingen to Trier— might perhaps be a day trip to one of the most beautiful Soonwald outlooks suggested here. This trip leads from the Nahe Valley through the Soonwald foothills up to the observation tower on Alteburg mountain, where you encounter the remains of a Celtic refuge. In the Latène Age (500 - 20 BC) such fortifications served the Celtic people in the surrounding area as protection against roving enemy tribes.

We begin our tour as early as possible from Zollstock, the highest elevation in the Soonwald foothills on the road from Bad Sobernheim to Gemünden. There is a parking lot for hikers a few kilometers from Nahe Valley. From Zollstock continue upon easy forest paths down to the 1000-year-old Willigis Chapel close to the little village of Auen, where the legendary Hunter of Kurpfalz found his last resting place.