If you set out on a hiking tour in the atmospheric Kammerwald in the NaturWanderPark delux, you must be aware that you are walking along old smugglers' trails that still give an adventurous impression today.

It is a world all of its own that casts its spell on you. Occasional rays of sunlight penetrate through the dense canopy of leaves, drawing colorful spots on the forest floor. The brittle leaves from last year crunch under your soles and the spice of freshly cut wood is in the air. Deep in the forest, a spotted woodpecker hammers, pauses, and resumes. The view upwards almost makes you dizzy. Columns of mighty trunks converge: branching, ramifying, embracing. Swaying slowly in the wind, they bear a canopy of greens in their graceful dance of giants, of heady yellows, oranges, and reds in autumn. You are in the chamber forest.

On old smuggler paths

You start this beautiful circular trail at the hikers' parking lot on the L1, in the middle of Kammerwald. Do not resist the mysterious aura of this ancient forest, which belonged to the Count of Vianden until the end of the feudal period. Following old smuggler's paths, the path runs along imposing oaks. Here you will even encounter the most magnificent and oldest oak in the West Eifel. Over 350 years old and with a girth of 5 m, it earns the name "King Oak". Since 2022 it is a national heritage tree and with 38 m probably the highest sessile oak in Germany. At Scheierhaff you will pass the imposing sanatorium built in 1931, which today houses a nursing home. From up here and from the vantage point "Fändelchen" you have a wonderful view over to Vianden Castle and Roth Castle, which even Victor Hugo raved about and which once belonged to the Knights Templar. Finally, the beautiful, open valley of the Gaybach holds a magic of its own: the "Goldene Grund". All in all, a tour full of contrasts awaits you, which has something adventurous and fairytale-like about it thanks to the Kammerwald forest and the smugglers' paths.