okres Náchod

Adršpach Rock Town: the short loop

Distance5.0 km

Elevation gain127 m

DifficultyEasy

Estimated time1 h 13 min

Overview

A 5.02 km loop through the Adršpach rock town, where sandstone towers up to 90 m rise from the floor of the Skalní potok valley. It threads the gorges of the green circuit, turns onto the blue branch at the old sand pit, and comes back below the tallest of the pillars. Most of the named rock here is passed at its foot rather than climbed.

Points of interest

Gotická branka — A rock gateway at 1.1 km, standing directly on the line — the path passes through the opening rather than around it. It is the first of the circuit's named formations.
Small Panorama — A named stop 2 m off the path at 1.7 km. It is tagged as an attraction rather than a viewpoint, so expect a marked spot rather than the wide view the name promises.
Milenci — Two sandstone towers 14 m off the path — Liebespaar in German, Kochankowie in Polish. This is the one tower the route offers as a stop; the several dozen other named rocks along the line are scenery passed at the foot.
Starosta a Starostová — A viewpoint 2 m off the line at 3.14 km, looking at the Mayor and the Mayoress, the pair of towers this stretch is routed to see. Each pillar is also mapped separately a little further west.
Adršpašsko-teplické skály — The reserve's own information node, 13 m off the line at 4.75 km near the end of the loop. It carries the area's signage and official website, and is where to read what the wider rock town covers beyond this circuit.

Trail alerts

Two thirds of this loop lies inside the enclosed rock circuit, and the body that runs it can close the gates. There is no shorter line and no way around that section, so a closure does not trim this walk — it ends it.
No closure information could be verified: our source registry holds no seasonal-closure or access-ban dataset for okres Náchod, and the operator's own terms set out neither a season nor opening hours. Whether the gates are open on a given day is unchecked here.
About an eighth of the loop, 635 m, runs on ways carrying no hiking blazes, and nobody signposts this exact line as a route. Off the green and blue circuits, navigation is by the recorded track rather than by waymarks — the walk is unmarked there.

Trail character

Underfoot it is mostly compacted earth — 2408 m of it — with 909 m of sand where the line crosses the old pit workings, 501 m of boardwalk and a 24 m metal span through the narrowest of the gorges. A further 749 m is unsurfaced path and 387 m carries no surface tag in OSM at all.
The loop climbs 127 m and drops 131 m, all of it between 509 m and 582 m, and the climbing comes in short steps rather than one ascent.
Several short out-and-back legs to viewpoints are already counted once in the recorded distance, so it should not be doubled for them.
The green circuit is KČT 4217 and the blue branch KČT 1832; both are blazed, and between them the line is not.

Access & rules

The start is an unnamed car park 227 m from the line; how many spaces it holds is recorded in no source we can check, and Adršpach fills up in season.
Walking and parking are billed separately, by two different bodies: Technické služby Adršpach s.r.o. runs the viewing circuit, and obec Adršpach owns the car park. A visitor who drives here pays two charges for five kilometres on foot.
Entry needs a valid ticket, and the published terms require a visitor to keep it to hand for the whole visit.
The rock town is a national nature reserve, and organising or promoting events on the circuit is forbidden under the same published terms.

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