Gaistal plateau paradise & Karwendel Alps park

Picturesque Gaistal Valley separates the Wetterstein and Mieminger mountain chains from Leutasch until just outside Ehrwald. Both sides of the valley boast imposing rockfaces. The incomparable beauty of this high-alpine natural environment provides a vast home for roe deer, chamois goats and red deer. The primordial energy of the local nature can be felt to this day.

In German, Gaistal in Leutasch is also referred to as a pasture paradise – and quite rightly so. Its 12 plateau pastures offer perfect trips out for enthusiastic cyclists, walkers and mountain-bikers. Treks up to the restaurant huts and lodges up on the plateaus begin from a specially-built car park on the eastern side of Gaistal Valley. This can be accessed by car from Leutasch via a toll road.

Those seeking a relaxing opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the countryside are recommended to try one of the easy tours up to the Gaistalalm or Feldernalm plateau pastures. Experienced cyclists and mountain-bikers will love the tough challenge posed by the steep ascent to the Hochfeldernalm fields, and will be rewarded with a breath-takingly panoramic view of the Wetterstein and Mieminger massifs.

Ludwig Ganghofer (1855 – 1920) was probably one of the best-known authors of ‘Heimat’ stories of his time. He spent many weeks of the year in his hunting lodge ‘Hubertus’ on the Tillfußalm pasture in the Leutasch Gaistal Valley where he wrote his most famous genre classic ‘Silence in the Forest’. He also received countless celebrity visitors from the worlds of art and culture, such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss. The revenue made by his novels enabled him to rent one of the largest hunting grounds in the Northern Alps – the Gaistaljagd. Some of the mountain pathways he had built still exist today. The popular route up to his Ganghoferhaus was also given his name. Along the way, visitors enjoy the fantastic natural scenery and can stop at any of the three rustic restaurant huts and lodges on Gaistalalm, Tillfußalm and Hämmermoosalm.