The 4 Most Amazing Peaks in Národní Přírodní Rezervace Čerchovské Hvozdy

Beautiful view with great visibility in good weather

The path from the Perlsee hiking car park to Čerchov over the Devil's Bridge is a path for inner contemplation. First you cross the city stream and reach the Devil's Bridge, actually the Devil's Bridge. The name reminds you of the person who once initiated the construction, a Mr. Devil. From there you follow the Fallerbach for almost 2 km through high forest, which changes from beech to spruce. Panels about the history of the settlement give a glimpse back to harder living conditions. When you reach the picture beech - which is certainly not the original - we leave the Fallerbach and are now on hiking trails for the second half of the hike. After crossing the border, several alternatives soon open up. With children, it is definitely worth taking the small detour via Beunnhäusl. From 900 m above sea level, the coniferous forest gradually changes back into beech forest until we reach the summit of Čerchov. At least from April to September we can stop off at one of the two restaurants and look back from the observation tower and let our gaze wander into the distance. The way back is the same - from a completely different perspective. All in all, the 13 to 14 km takes 3 to 4 hours.

Čerchov, whose German name is "Schwarzkopf", is the highest mountain in the Bohemian Forest. There are two towers and a row of barracks on the summit. One tower is an observation tower built in 1904. The other tower, peppered with listening devices, was used as a reconnaissance post by the Soviets and the Stasi until the fall of the Berlin Wall and later by the Czech army until after 1990. For this reason, it was not permitted to climb to the top of the mountain for a long time. The reconnaissance station is part of a chain of similar listening posts along the German border and continues northwards over Velký Zvon (859 metres), Havran (894 metres) and Dyleň (939 metres).

Currently closed because construction is underway on Čerchov. A new mountain hut with rooms and a restaurant is to be built.

Small cozy room. Delicious dishes with a large selection. Prices are very cheap and can be paid in crowns or euros.

The Čerchov (German Schwarzkopf) is 1042 m n.m. the highest mountain in the Upper Palatinate Forest (Český les) and the northern peak of the Bohemian Forest. It is about 2 km from the German-Czech border in the Czech Republic, roughly in the middle of a triangle formed by the towns of Waldmünchen, Furth im Wald and Domažlice.

It's great when it's open

After being used by the Wehrmacht in World War II, the summit was used intensively as a reconnaissance station until the 1990s and was no longer open to the public. In addition to the Kurz-Turm (named after its builder), which was built in 1904 as an observation tower, a second, larger tower was built by the Czechoslovak army in 1987, which is now used for air traffic control purposes and is not accessible. The corresponding NATO communications station was on the Hoher Bogen about 20 km to the south-east; other reconnaissance posts were u. a. on the Velký Zvon (Plattenberg, with a tower built in 1978 in a very similar way, with visual contact to the Čerchov plant) and the Dyleň. In addition to the Soviet Army, Main Department III of the East German Ministry for State Security also used the position on the Čerchov as a listening post (code name "RUBIN"). In the course of the opening of the border and reunification, the listening posts were given up and the Kurz-Turm has been accessible again since July 2000. The mountain offers a panoramic view of the Bavarian Forest and the Czech plain, in good weather conditions the view extends to the Alps. There is also an amateur radio relay on the mountain. The Domažlice Tourist Club renovated the lookout tower and built an extension to the so-called short tower, which houses a small bistro. Climbing the tower costs €1.