On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
BigJimSlade
OK, now we continue on our first hike of the trip, starting from the saddle you could see the trail going through in the last picture from the previous post.
By the time we got to the hut for lunch, I was weak and exhausted. This has happened before where, before my jet lag is over (takes about a week for the 9 hour time change), hiking in the morning is tough. After a hearty lunch, I become human. I talked about it in this previous post from Switzerland.
After lunch, we continued down into Höllentalklamm gorge. Here the water churns through narrow rock. It’s fun, wet, and costs money. The entrance is on the downhill side and we were coming from the uphill side, so we had to pay to leave. We didn’t know how much it would cost and were running low on cash. We found out that they did NOT take credit cards, and it was 6.50 / person. We had, I think 12.70 on us :-/
I dug around in my backpack and pulled out a 20 dollar bill (yes, US dollars). They didn’t take that of course, but the guy at the counter said he was going to NYC in a couple months and could change it for us! He traded us 18 euros for the 20 dollars and now we had enough money. Ay-yi-yi. We rulllly didn’t want to walk back through the gorge and up and around the bypass, an extra 60-90 minutes.
When we got down to the road, it would’ve been like 30 minutes for the bus, so we walked the couple miles back, through lovely paths that connect towns in the valley. This is a really wonderful feature of this part of the world, so we were looking forward to walking some of these… and the sun came out!

We will be hiking on the trail on the left side of the canyon, then (after lunch) continuing down along the bottom of it. Supersize.

This is a slightly closer look – they’ve blasted a trail into the canyon wall in places. Bigger.

Near the huts, there’s often some livestock – this time it’s sheep! Larger.

Here’s glance at the gorge. And here’s a short video of one section. Embiggen.

I told you it would clear up a bit! (This is looking back towards the mountains.) Think big.


Also, you find cigarette machines here in the countryside! Ah, Germany. Bigger again.
eclare
The photos all look so peaceful.
JPL
The video clip is amazing and thank you for including it.
eclare
@JPL:
I went back and watched, that is amazing. Love the sound.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team
Beautiful, ty for these!
Traveller
I never found the video clip, but that’s Okay…the still shots are magnificent and tell the story of what it must be like to hike this canyon…I say yikes for myself trying this, but kudos to you. I also loved the exit fee/money exchange story…ahh the kindness of strangers, we have all been there….thanks for this meaningful post. Best Wishes, Traveller
Edit: found the video lol…nice glacial runoff.
MelissaM
Nothing like a good smoke break after huffing and puffing through the mountains!
Also they wouldn’t take 12.70?? Only .30 short? Harrumph. But cool that you were able to casually exchange your $20.
spc123
@MelissaM: I don’t think they asked if they would take it but if they didn’t have signage up top – they probably would have. I would guess the Klamm is still owned by some old Garmisch farming family and probably a bit informal on these things (although some of the surrounding terrain on that side of the Zugspitze massif is a Naturschutzgebiet – protected and state owned). Lesson learned: always have cash in-hand in DE (and also in Austria).
BigJimSlade
Thanks for the nice comments everybody!
cope
Wonderful, inspiring pictures and story, thank you, ganz gut.
3letterjon
@BigJimSlade:
Lovely posting and photos!
Are you related to THE Big Jim Slade?
“And the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln!”
BigJimSlade
@3letterjon: :-) No relation to the actor or fake football player, and no records come equipped with me. But, yes, that’s where I got it from, lol. I was sick of coming up with user names, and I had to come up with one to comment here years ago. In a flash of sarcasm, I thought to myself, BIG JIM SLADE! Then thought about it for a sec (hey, I played a little tight end in flag football), and thought, yeah, good enough
I just googled the actor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manny_Perry