Josefsthaler Waterfalls

The Josefsthaler Waterfalls were kind of obscure in that there wasn’t a whole lot of literature devoted to it when I was doing my trip planning research. However, I found an opportunity to visit it when we were leaving the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area and heading towards Munich. Given the lousy weather when I made my visit, it turned out to be a good waterfall to visit on a day dominated by driving long distances.

These waterfalls on the Hachelbach consisted of an attractive main drop (probably at least 20m tall) with some surprising upstream cascades. I actually managed to take a longer and more roundabout rundweg (loop path) that made this excursion longer than it should have been, but that was how I wound up finding out about the upper waterfalls, and why I refer to these waterfalls in its plural form.

Indeed, had I gone in the correct direction, this excursion would have only taken me around 30-45 minutes tops. Instead, the rundweg that I took wound up being about 100 minutes to complete. Personally, I’d recommend sticking with the direct route. There wasn’t that much to see on the rundweg unless the goal was to spend a bit more time in quiet solitude.

So given that, I’ll just focus this writeup on the most direct path. I’ll gloss over the rundweg later.

After finding street parking on the Josefstalerstrasse or the Aurachstrasse (see directions below), I would then walk south along the Josefstalerstrasse as it started to parallel the Hachelbach. A short distance after the bridge over the creek, I then kept right to remain on the Josefstalerstrasse. Eventually, the road ended and the trail continued on with signage suggesting the falls was only 10 minutes from here.

The path quickly skirted by someone’s property before entering a forested area flanking the Hachelbach. Within minutes, the trail headed right up to the main drop of the Josefsthaler Waterfalls with its pleasant segmented characteristic. In order to get all the way up to the base of the waterfall, I would have to leave the trail and get my feet wet. So I was merely content to get my views and carry on.

Next, the trail climbed steeply as it eventually skirted by partial views of the main drop at the top, then continued further upstream. After nearly another 400m, the trail started to skirt by some attractive upper cascades. The terrain here was a bit rockier and more slippery in order to try to get a closer look. In any case, after experiencing these cascades, I’d suggest that this would be the turnaround point.

Distance-wise, the direct trail would have been merely about 2km round trip (depending on where you park). The rundweg that I took (which began on the small street called Buchenweg) wound up taking me on a roughly 4km loop.

Finally, given the rather obscure nature of this waterfall (and I say obscure because there was neither a dedicated car park nor a whole lot of literature on the interwebs), I’ve seen this more commonly referred to by its German names as the Josefsthaler Wasserfall as well as the Josefsthaler Wasserfälle.