okres Náchod

Dolní Adršpach Short Rock Loop

Distance4.3 km

Elevation gain117 m

DifficultyEasy

Estimated time2 h 25 min

Overview

A short circuit through the Adršpach rock town, where sandstone towers up to 90 m high stand in a national nature reserve in north-east Bohemia. At 4.3 km it is the least of the walks in the reserve. The line threads the gorges between the towers and closes where it began.

Points of interest

Pískovna — The flooded sandpit, passed in the first two hundred metres on the way in from the entrance. It is the open water visible from the car park, and the only place on this circuit where the sky is not framed by rock.
Gotická branka — The 'Gothic gate'. The line runs through the opening rather than past it — measured at 0 m off — so it is a doorway on the walk, and the first of the named formations after the start.
Lioness' head formation — A weathered block whose profile from the path gives it the name, 6 m off the line, at the head of the leg down to the water.
Adršpašské jezírko — The lake at the bottom of the gorge, and the reason the walk goes down there and comes back: the path ends at the landing stage where the boat across the flooded quarry starts, with the Great Waterfall a little before it. There is no through path — the only way out is the way in — so the turn here is a destination rather than a change of mind.
Starosta a Starostová — A viewpoint 2 m off the line, looking at the Mayor and the Mayoress — the two pillars this stretch is routed to see, and the tallest pair on the short loop.
Ozvěna — A roofed shelter 2 m off the line, and the last named thing before the path turns east for the entrance. The name means 'echo'.

Trail alerts

No sign anywhere names this walk, and part of it carries no hiking blaze at all. The green KČT waymarks cover most of the loop but do not close it, so navigate by the track and not by the signs.
Closures could not be checked. No closure dataset in our source registry covers this district, so the absence of a closure here is an absence of information and not an all-clear. The operator's terms provide for the sightseeing circuit being shut by an extraordinary event, and name adrspasskeskaly.cz as where that is announced — look there on the day you go.

Trail character

Underfoot it is 2012 m of packed earth and 909 m of sand, with 501 m of boardwalk over the softest ground, 509 m of unsurfaced path and 47 m of made-up surface. A further 294 m carries no surface tag in OSM at all — a blank rather than a promise of easy going.
The loop climbs 117 m and drops 118 m, all of it between 510 m and 582 m, and the climbing comes in short steps rather than in one ascent.
The leg down to Adršpašské jezírko is an out-and-back — the landing stage is a dead end and the way out is the way in — and its 1.0 km is already counted once in the distance, so it should not be doubled.
The paid circuit is blazed KČT green, ref 4217. Where the line leaves it there is no blaze of any colour to follow.

Access & rules

The walk begins at the rock town's entrance, Adršpašské skály (vstup). The nearest place to leave a car is Parkoviště Adršpašské skály, 171 m away, and the approach from it is drawn on the map. No source we can check records how many spaces it holds, and Adršpach fills up in season.
Walking and parking are billed separately: the published terms charge both entry to the viewing circuit and driving into the car park, so somebody arriving by car pays twice for a 4.3 km walk.
Entry needs a valid ticket, and the published terms require a visitor to keep it to hand for the whole visit.
The operator caps how many visitors are admitted to the circuit each hour, so arriving without a booked ticket can mean waiting or being turned away. Book ahead, or start early.
The car park operates around the clock. The circuit does not, so the walk cannot be started at any hour.

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