The combination of two national park circular hiking trails provides a particularly intensive insight into the large beech forests of the national park.
The hole oak area is the center of a large beech forest area in the national park. From Gellershausen you follow the squirrel symbol, past hat beech trees and heather remnants until the path plunges into the forest. On the hilltops, broken beech trees with tree fungi and woodpecker holes give an idea of where development is heading.
The Traddelkopf route leads around the highest mountain in the national park (626 m above sea level) - here the hiker follows the great spotted woodpecker. We pass the Ruhlauber, a former nature reserve. Dense young beech growth has grown under beech trees that are up to 200 years old. The development into a “primeval forest” is already visible here. Dead wood also marks the process of growth and decay in the forest on the tops of the Traddelkopf.
