Edelfrauengrab waterfall

The Edelfrauengrab waterfalls lie in a steep gorge cut by the Gottschlägbach through a band of hard rhyolite near Ottenhöfen in the western Black Forest. The site sits at the lower slope of the main ridge which rises 600 to 800 metres above the valley floor. Porphyry cliffs on the Karlsruher Grat tower above the same gorge, linking the two landforms in one geological unit. The falls form a 190-metre sequence of steps between three and eight metres high, dropping forty metres in total. The lowest drop is eight metres and ends in a grotto-like hollow where a local legend tells of an edelfrau walled up alive for attempted infanticide. The Gottschlägbach carries about 120 litres of water every second, fed by one of Germany’s wettest upland areas where annual rainfall reaches 2 200 millimetres. A forest path built in 1857 leads from the Ottenhöfen car park to the lower falls and continues up to the Karlsruher Grat. The route passes the Deglerbad waterfall, a three-metre drop marked for photographers, and a smaller nine-metre fall from the Holderbrünnle stream. The whole gorge and adjacent ridge are protected within the Gottschlägtal-Karlsruher Grat nature reserve.