Monday, April 1, 2019

Bingen forest

About an hour from Frankfurt is a forest. I mean, there's forests a whole lot closer too. But one small stretch of this forest contains trees that have faces carved into them - according to Atlas Obscura, 66 to be exact. 

Atlas Obscura refers to Stockschleifern, but other references are to Steckeschlääferklamm. I don't understand why they do not have the same name and I definitely blame my inability to find the parking lot on my first try on the confusion of names. When Google Maps told me I had reached my destination, while I was clearly on a one-lane road without shoulders and about to enter "no actual road" zone, I knew that I had perhaps lay my trust inappropriately. Lucky for me, there was a van packed on the side of the road and a few people wrestling with equipment, and when I asked where Steckeschlääferklamm was, they pointed a short distance back the way I had come and said I could park there and the entrance was across the street from that.

A while into our hike I saw the group again, working on a new sculpture in a length of tree trunk. Cool!