Zipfelsbach Waterfall

The Zipfelsbach Waterfall was one of the much taller waterfalls in Germany though it didn’t seem to get a whole lot of fanfare. It was said to have a cumulative drop of around 300m (most likely a WAG), but that would put it well higher than other waterfalls proclaiming to be the tallest in this region or that region or the country as a whole (see Triberg Waterfalls or the Urach Waterfall or even Todtnau Waterfall as some such examples).

Just to give you an idea of how tall this waterfall was, I only managed to get up to the first two drops from its base. There could very well be at least four or five total significant drops comprising the overall Zipfelsbach Waterfall so trying to go all the way to the top could very well have been at least a half- to full-day affair. Obviously the higher you go, the better the views across the Hintersteintal Valley, which yielded some attractive jagged mountains of the Bavarian Alps (some of which still clung onto snow as of late June and early July).

Although the Zipfelsbach Waterfall could already be seen from the main road through the town of Hinterstein, it was worthwhile to hike up to at least one of the waterfalls for a closer look and for a more intimate experience. The most obvious path began from a car park near a seemingly non-operation pub that also had a fire station attached to it.

From there, the footpath immediately climbed alongside the edge of a grassy field before entering right into the tree cover of a pine forest. After a short distance (maybe a little over 150m from the trailhead), the path passed by a stile leading back downhill to town. Continuing on the waterfall trail, just a few paces further began the start of a steep and relentlessly uphill ascent alongside the Zipfelsbach Creek with other parts of the waterfall being audible but not very well seen as a result of the thick foliage.

This steep ascent started just before a footbridge traversing the Zipfelsbach Creek. On the other side of that bridge was a trail that was leading back down to the town of Hinterstein towards the backside of some cafes as well as accommodations (so there was definitely more than one way to do this hike). In any case, after another 150m or so of switchbacks and steep thigh burning steps, I was finally able to cut across to the first significant and accessible part of the Zipfelsbach Waterfall.

At this point, the waterfall had a drop before crashing onto a slope that continued to crash its way steeply down towards the town of Hinterstein well below this spot. After having my fill of this first waterfall, the trail then continued its relentless ascent as it went another 150m or so before reaching a footbridge fronting a taller and more plunging second Zipfelsbach Waterfall.

It took me around 30-45 minutes to make it up to this spot. And since I was hiking solo, this was my turnaround point. Indeed, I saw other hikers continue their ascent higher up the mountain towards more tiers of the Zipfelsbach Waterfall. Maybe one of these days, I’ll have a chance to have more time to fully complete this hike and have more to say about it.

On the way back down, I took the stile, which descended the edge of a grassy area before rejoining the trailhead near the fire station and defunct bar. Along the way, I was treated to sweeping views of the town church backed by the jagged mountains of the Bavarian Alps on the other side of the valley.

All told, the excursion I wound up doing took me around 45 minutes to an hour to complete, but it could easily take longer than that. I’d imagine going further up the mountain to check out the upper tiers of the Zipfelsbach Waterfall would take at least 2-3 hours or more.

For nomenclature semantics, while this waterfall could be deemed as having several waterfalls, I’ve opted to go with referencing this falls as the Zipfelsbach Waterfall instead of pluralizing it to Zipfelsbach Waterfalls. I’ve also seen it by the German spellings of Zipfelsbachfall, Zipfelsbachfälle, Zipfelsbach Wasserfall, and Zipfelsbach Wasserfälle. I did have it misspelled Zipfielsbach for some reason.