Maar Trail
Schalkenmehren
The Maar Trail (“Maare-Pfad”) takes you to seven maars in the Volcanic Eifel. The start of the trail, which is one of the Volcanic Eifel routes, is the small town of Schalkenmehren next to the maar of the same name, the largest of the three well-known Daun maars (the Weinfeld, Gemünden and Schalkenmehren maars). The first day is already full of highlights, with the tour taking you to the bell foundry in Brockscheid, the Hitsche maar, a magical dry maar, the Dürre maar and the Holzmaar.
During the next stage, the tour continues to the almost perfect circle of the Pulvermaar, the deepest maar in the Volcanic Eifel, the “Strohner Märchen” maar, which has now silted up, and the Immerather maar, which is tucked away from view.
If you follow the path until the end, you cross the Uessbach valley. Here, the maars follow the mills. The path ends at the Drei-Eichen-Hütte (“three oak hut”) and the hikers’ car park of the same name.
From here, you can either take a longer route along the Maar and Thermal Springs Trail (around 8 km) or a direct route to the small town of Lutzerath.
Due to its length, it’s worth dividing the Maar Trail into a 2-day tour. We recommend that you divide the route into the following two sections:
- 1. Etappe: Start: Schalkenmehren | Gillenfeld | 15,1 km | 5,5 h
- 2. Etappe: Start: Gillenfeld | Strotzbüsch | 15,9 km | 7 h
Marking of the tour: