The NaturRADtour is marked throughout. Follow the signs on the route anticlockwise to the west and enjoy unique natural and cultural areas. Find out exactly what awaits you here:
1. the Hardtwald
(Hardtebene nature reserve, Nördliche Hardt conservation area)
The Hardtwald forest to the north of Karlsruhe is the city's largest wooded area and stretches between Karlsruhe Castle and the municipality of Graben-Neudorf. Even today, the forest tells stories from the time when the city was founded. Take a detour to the Gustav-Jacob-Hütte, the impressive oak tree there is as old as Karlsruhe itself. As a protected area, the Hardtwald is an important habitat and retreat for endangered plants and animals.
2. old airfield
(Hardtebene nature reserve, Alter Flugplatz conservation area)
Distance to the start 4 km
Nature conservation in the middle of the city, where can you find such a thing? From the Zeppelin landing field to the emergency airfield of the Americans (until 1993), the area of the old airfield is now a playground for heat-loving insects and bird species. Its predominantly low vegetation is particularly impressive in spring and early summer with its changing carpets of color. The area is now kept clear by donkeys. A detour in the direction of Neureut-Heide reveals another phenomenon from the Ice Age, the dunes without a sea.
3rd Rhine
(Rhine floodplains nature reserve, Maxau and Burgau oxbow lakes nature reserve, Rappenwörth nature conservation center)
Distance to the start 14 km
For thousands of years, the Rhine was a wild, unpredictable river that shifted its course time and again. Traces of this time can still be seen today. The most striking are its former banks, which stand out as several meters high jumps in the terrain. Today, it is an important shipping route and economic artery, shaping the Rhine landscape near Karlsruhe. Between the large refinery site with oil port north of the Rhine bridge and the Rhine port area to the south, there are idyllic areas of the Rhine lowlands with woodland and water. Agriculture, such as the Maxau estate built after the Rhine was straightened, can also be found here. It is also home to the Knielinger Museum, which houses an exhibition on the development of Rhine shipping from its beginnings to the present day. A farm store, restaurants and a large playground make this section of the tour an experience for the whole family.
4. plateau
(Rhine lowlands nature reserve, Lutherisches Wäldle conservation area)
Distance to the start 22 km
Before Johann Gottfried Tulla straightened the Rhine, it flowed in loops and meanders. Over the millennia, it created a wide lowland. This was its floodplain, which could be flooded during high water. Traces of this time can still be seen today. The old village centers of the "Rhine villages", for example, are all located on the edge of the high bank, where they were largely safe from flooding. Incidentally, in the Karlsruhe area, the term "Hochgestade" refers to the higher area of the Rhine plain outside the original Rhine floodplains.
5. floodplain forest
(Rheinniederung natural area, Rheinniederung conservation area near Karlsruhe)
Distance to the start 18 km
The Rappenwörter Altrhein is a result of the straightening of the Rhine. After opening a branch channel, the Rhine broke through the planned course and overflowed to the east. By building dams, the project succeeded a few hundred meters further downstream and the Rappenwörter Old Rhine was created. This is where the nature conservation center is located. The Bauhaus-style building is now a popular meeting place with a permanent exhibition and a wide range of events.
6th Alb near Appenmühle
(Hardtebene nature area, Alb and Oberwald conservation area)
Distance to the start 27 km
One of the Rhine tributaries, the Alb, flows through Karlsruhe and is a popular local recreation area. At the Appenmühle, the near-natural redesign of the river bank, the construction of a fish ladder and other measures on this section of the Alb have created extensive biological continuity and near-natural habitats. Originally built as a flour mill, the Appenmühle later became a hydroelectric power station, for which a canal was diverted at the Thomas weir.
7th Alb Höhe Günther-Klotz-Anlage
(Hardtebene nature area, Alb and Oberwald conservation area)
Distance to the start 30 km
The Günther-Klotz complex was created as the "Karlsruhe park of the 20th century". The area features a model boat and rowing boat lake, a toboggan and viewing hill, playgrounds, large play and sunbathing areas and many walking paths. There are also various wet and dry biotopes for rare and endangered animal and plant species.
8th Oberwald
(Kinzig-Murg-Rinne nature area, Alb and Oberwald conservation area)
Distance to the start 35 km
With the Oberwald, we reach the third natural area in the Rhine plain, the so-called Kinzig-Murg-Rinne. Here there is a change between the low-lying, damp areas and the higher gravel islands. The Oberwald forest is also home to many other tree species, including the oak trees so typical of Karlsruhe. Particularly popular is the free Oberwald animal park, which is home to several species such as the bison or the Przewalski's horse, which are part of the European conservation breeding program for endangered species.
9th Durlach
(Kinzig-Murg-Rinne nature area)
Distance to the start 41 km
The Kinzig-Murg channel near Durlach is a continuous shallow depression around three kilometers wide with only a few gravel islands. The old town of Durlach is located on one of them. A detour to the picturesque old town, which was first mentioned in 1196, is worthwhile: narrow alleyways or the Karlsburg castle with its beautiful palace garden. If you want to get up high, you can climb the 528 steps up Durlach's local mountain, the Turmberg, and enjoy the view of the city and the Rhine plain as well as the Black Forest and the Vosges mountains.
10. eleventh morning break
(Kinzig-Murg-Rinne nature reserve, Elfmorgenbruch conservation area)
Distance to the start 43 km
The Elfmorgenbruch is a large forest area on the edge of the Kinzig-Murg channel. This so-called quarry forest is a permanently wet, locally flooded, long-term flooded, swampy forest. Black alder naturally predominates here. After the Second World War, they were supplemented by fast-growing hybrid poplars which, due to their rapid ageing, are rich in caves that serve as shelter for bats and birds, for example.
