okres Náchod

Adršpach to Teplické skály

Distance6.4 km

Elevation gain157 m

DifficultyEasy

Estimated time1 h 33 min

Overview

A one-way crossing of the Adršpašsko-teplické skály, from the Adršpach rock town south to the Teplice one. The two are linked by a forest section away from the rock, and near the finish the route makes a short there-and-back out to a ruined castle. A 6.38 km walk with 157 m of ascent.

Points of interest

Gotická branka — A named gateway in the sandstone, 1.2 km in. It stands on the line of the path rather than off it — the walk goes through the gap.
Small Panorama — A named lookout on the Adršpach circuit, 1.8 km in and two metres off the path, so it costs nothing but a pause to stop at.
Stříbrný pramen — A spring on the middle section between the two rock towns, 4.3 km in and seven metres off the path. It is recorded as a natural spring and not as a supply for drinking, so do not plan on it.
Hrad Střmen — The ruin of a rock castle above the Teplice side, 5.4 km in. The route reaches it by a spur of 483 m each way and comes back along the same path, which is why that stretch of the walk is covered twice.

Trail alerts

This walk does not come back to where it starts. It ends at Teplice nad Metují, roughly six kilometres from the Adršpach end, and it cannot be closed on foot: the one direct link between the two is carriageway with no pavement, which is why the line stops here. Nothing in this draft confirmed a way back — no railway halt or bus stop was found at either end in the data available — so settle the return before you set out.
Entry at the Adršpach end is by a booked time window. The operator sells online entry for one named day and one time slot only, valid within that slot and not outside it, so the hour you start is fixed before you arrive.
The southern half crosses the Teplice rock town, and that operator's own conditions could not be read for this draft: its website is not a source we are cleared to use and does not serve a valid certificate. What it requires of walkers crossing it is unknown, and 3.9 km of the line runs on ways recorded as open to customers only.
Seasonal closures were not checked. No closure dataset for this district is available to us, so nothing here should be read as saying the paths are open; confirm with both operators before travelling.
Short stretches of road: about 349 m of the walk is on road of one kind or another, and 133 m of that has no pavement of its own.

Trail character

Just under half the distance — 2849 m — is path by way type. Beyond that: 1289 m of hard surface, 695 m of compacted earth, 568 m of sand, 374 m of boardwalk, 179 m of stone and 54 m of metal grating, with 259 m carrying no surface tag at all.
96 m of the walk is on stairways that carry no waymark of their own: rock-town steps linking the marked sections.
The line runs between 500 m and 595 m above sea level, climbing 157 m and dropping 166 m across the crossing. There is no sustained ascent — the height is gained and lost in short pieces.
No single waymark runs the whole way. The route uses the green Adršpach circuit (KČT 4217), the yellow Vlčí rokle section (KČT 7369) and a red-diamond stretch of Via Czechia (VIA-CZE-108) in turn, changing between them as it goes. 6269 m of the line lies on one marked route or another, but the combination is nobody's signposted route, so follow the track rather than any single blaze.

Access & rules

The line begins 38 m from a large car park at the northern trailhead and finishes 66 m from the Teplické skály one. Map data marks the northern one as not open, which may be stale tagging, but check it before driving out; it is run by the municipality rather than by the rock town operator.
Both rock towns are ticketed ground. The Adršpach visitor circuit is operated by Technické služby Adršpach, s.r.o. (IČO 252 99 115, Horní Adršpach 128), which sells entry online through its own site.
The whole crossing lies inside the Adršpašsko-teplické skály national nature reserve, and the operator describes the paid way through it as a visitor circuit. Keep to the marked paths.
Administratively the walk runs from the municipality of Adršpach to Teplice nad Metují, both in okres Náchod, with a short middle portion passing through Jívka under a different seat.

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