Höllental

The B31 plunges through the Höllental, Hell’s Valley, southeast of Freiburg, squeezing past the Hirschsprung gorge where rock walls rise over a hundred metres before climbing the Falkensteig serpentines up to Hinterzarten and the Titisee.

From the valley mouth at Himmelreich the B31 runs into the deep, narrow Höllental, the classic gateway from Freiburg into the High Black Forest. It hauls up the Falkensteig switchbacks, then threads the dramatic Hirschsprung, the gorge’s narrowest pinch beneath cliffs over a hundred metres high marked by the bronze leaping-stag statue, before reaching the plateau at Hinterzarten near the Titisee. The scenery is gorge-and-forest spectacular and the road carries the Höllentalbahn railway alongside, but it is also a busy main artery. Mind heavy through-traffic and frequent tunnels in the gorge, the tight Falkensteig hairpins on the climb, and slow lorries and tourist coaches that bunch traffic in the narrow section.