Taunus – Longest Singletrack Trail in the Frankfurt Area

Most likely, the trails in the Taunus will struggle to make it into the top 100 list of the world’s best singletrack MTB-trails.  However, there are great trail riding opportunities that can be discovered and even epic tours are possible, if you just know the area good enough.  The best and longest routes are up and down the highest elevations in the Taunus, the Grosse Feldberg (872m) and the Altkönig (799m).

Starting from the foot of the hill, e.g. in Oberursel at 270 m, there are enough climbing options to get a good workout and a fun downhill ride afterwards.  The best trails are not really marked and perhaps not all of them are 100% legal (which is anyway, hard to tell with the legal situation in Hessen).  As the Taunus hills are close to Frankfurt, forest roads and trails can be fairly busy, particularly on weekends.   Besides the beautiful natural scenery, a lot of remains of the old Romans and Celts are still visible.  Some nice trails actually run right on the Limes, that the Romans built as a defensive line against the German tribes from the north.

The longest singletrack trail in the Taunus starts on top of the Grosse Feldberg and leads down to an ancient Roman castle.  The descent is not overly technical, you just have to find your line around or over the rocks and roots.  After crossing a road it continues only slightly descending but with great flow.  After almost 4 km of good fun the trail spits you out on a forest road and you have to climb again about 200 m to hit another 3.5 km long trail into the Reichenbachtal.  The trail is interrupted a few times by forest roads but has good length and flow.  The climb up the Feldberg and the long trails combined make a great all-mountain tour that can be further extended after passing Falkenstein with another nice singletrack down to the Viktoria Tempel and further to the Hünerberg.  Certainly, the trail is exciting enough to make it into the top list of the best singletrack trails in Germany.