Nature reserve and bird sanctuary - Mehlinger Heide (heath), Mehlingen
Part of the present Mehlinger Heide was laid out as a military training area at the time of World War I. In the years 1937 to 1945 the terrain was used by the German Wehrmacht; after the end of the war the French armed forces took over the facility. In the course of the disarmament measures after the end of the Cold War, the French garrison in Kaiserslautern was dissolved and the training area returned to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1992. The return of the US areas followed in 1994. The nature reserve has a size of approximately 1,000 acres. It covers parts of the districts of Mehlingen, Baalborn and Neukirchen.
Information: Tourist office Enkenbach-Alsenborn, phone: 06303/913171
Billesweiher ("Billes" pond), Enkenbach-Alsenborn
The name is derived from the medieval first name of Billung which was quite common, especially among knights. The Billesweiher is surrounded by a rather homogeneous mixed forest of beech and woodrush. The water is edged by a more or less developed silt zone. A dam is penetrated by two amphibian tunnels.
The reed zone in the north as well as the alder bog in the east and the silt zone in the intake area are breeding and food places for various species of birds as well as spawning grounds for amphibians.
Information: Mehlinger Heide and Billesweiher: Tourist office Enkenbach-Alsenborn, Tel.: 06303/913168
Natural monument Elendsklamm, Bruchmühlbach-Miesau
The natural monument "Elendsklamm" with its diverse geobotanical phenomena is a unique attraction. Small terraced cascades and frothy waterfalls, bizarre weathered shapes in hard quartz sandstone, block fields and overhanging red sandstone layers have been witnesses of the powerful force of running water since the beginning of the Mesozoic era.
In the course of cultural history, the 3 kilometer long ravine has repeatedly been an important political and religious border.
Information: Tourist office Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, phone: 06372/9220101
Karlstal ravine, Trippstadt
This is the most romantic hike in the Palatinate Forest and also part of the English landscape garden that L. von Sckell laid out around the Trippstadt castle. The valley owes its name to the Palatine huntsman Karl Theodor von Hacke.
Names like "Oberhammer" (upper pond), "Walzweiher" (mill pond) and "Eisenschmelz" (iron melt) recall the industrial past of iron smelting and metal-working in the Karlstal in the 19th century.
Information: Tourist office Trippstadt, phone: 06306/341
Weltachs (world's axle), Waldleinigen
Deep in the woods, between Waldleiningen and Johanniskreuz, on top of the 459 m high "Roßrück (horseback)" hill, you can find a huge sandstone block inscribed in Palatine dialect: "Here we grease the world's axle and watch out that nothing happens!"
The inscription is a quote from the "Palatine World History", a humorous work by the regional poet Paul Münch (1879-1951), in which he relocates twenty historically important events of world history to the Palatinate - thus making this area the center of the world and the cradle of mankind. And the sensitive task of "greasing the world's axle", the poet wrote, was the responsibility of the people of the Palatinate. In the early 1960s this inspired a local forester to erect this monument in the woods around Waldleiningen, where the "greasing" is now performed every year in a lively party.
Information: Tourist office Hochspeyer, phone: 06305/71147
Mammoth trees, Landstuhl
The road from Landstuhl to Martinshöhe is lined by seven North American mammoth trees with the scientific name of "Sequoiadendron giganteum". They are over 25 m high and their trunks have a circumference of 7 m. Head forester Schütz - in 1861 in the service of Baron von Stumm - raised the trees from seeds in the former lodge garden.
The oldest mammoth tree specimen found to date has an age of 3200 years.
Information: Touristinformation Sickingen-Tourism Landstuhl, phone: 06371/1300012
Fleischackerloch, Landstuhl
The Fleischackerloch (meat field hole) is a ravine with primeval-like old trees. The pastures and fields at the valley floor used to be rented out against delivery of meat, hence the name of the natural monument.
Information: Touristinformation Sickingen-Tourism Landstuhl, phone: 06371/1300012