Bad Wildbad

The Baumwipfelpfad opened in 2014 on the ridge above the spa town, a timber walkway about one and a quarter kilometres long running through the crowns of a mixed forest at up to twenty metres, with interpretation stations and sections that test balance. It ends at a forty-metre tower whose ramp spirals to a viewing platform, with a slide running down the centre for the descent. Since 2020 the Wildline, a suspension bridge three hundred and eighty metres long, crosses the valley nearby with a curved deck. The Sommerberg funicular of 1908 climbs from the town, which has been a spa since the Middle Ages.

Background

The spa town below the walkway sits in a pine-covered gorge of the Enz, which feeds the Neckar, in the Black Forest, 45 km west of Stuttgart and 23 km east of Baden-Baden. The name appears as Wiltbade in a document of 1345, and the place was made an Amtsstadt in 1442. Its waters drew bathers in the 16th and 17th centuries, and in the 19th century it became a fashionable luxury spa known for hydrotherapy. The Palais Thermal, designed in that century by Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret, is still in use. The present town was formed in 1974 from Wildbad, Calmbach, Sprollenhaus, Nonnenmiß and Aichelberg, and it was called only Wildbad until 1991.

Source: Wikipedia, "Bad Wildbad"

What you'll find

• The canopy walkway - 1.25 kilometres through the treetops.
• The tower slide - a 40-metre tower with a slide down its core.
• The Wildline - a 380-metre curved suspension bridge over the valley.
• The 1908 funicular - a historic line climbing from the spa town.

When to go

April to October; the walkway and bridge run year-round but close in storms and ice. Summer weekends and school holidays bring long queues.

Things to know

Walkway and bridge are separate tickets. Both close in high wind and thunderstorms. It is busy with families in holiday periods.

Nearby

Calw lies east; Pforzheim is north.

Key facts