Mehlingen: Heathland, Hiking Trails and History
Accommodation in Mehlingen
The Mehlinger Heide combines a vast heathland landscape with hiking trails and fascinating insights into the region’s history. The heath itself covers around 150 hectares and is one of the largest heathland areas in southern Germany. During your stay in Mehlingen, you can choose between a short themed trail, a circular route through the heath and longer hikes with very different route profiles.
File:Mehlinger Heide - Blick Richtung Mehlingen.jpg
Photo: Zoppo59 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Heathland and flowering season
If you would like to see the heath in bloom, you can plan your trip around its usual flowering season: it normally begins at the end of July, reaches its peak in August and gradually fades in September. This seasonal change gives a walk through the landscape a special focus. An approximately 3.5-kilometre circular hiking trail leads through the Mehlinger Heide. Its circular route offers a way to explore the heathland on foot without choosing one of the longer hiking routes.
Another option is the approximately 1.5-kilometre heathland discovery trail. Information boards and stations are dotted along the route; its features include a “green classroom”, a sensory learning station focused on scents, and an insect hotel. If you enjoy stopping along the way to explore individual topics, this trail offers specific points of interest. The circular route and discovery trail differ both in length and in design: one is described as a circular hiking trail, while the other combines the path with information boards and stations.
Hikes with different profiles
For longer outings, the Hochfelsweg and Sonnwendweg provide route details to help you plan. The Hochfelsweg is 12 kilometres long, has 250 metres of elevation gain and an indicated walking time of around 3 hours and 45 minutes. It runs mainly through woodland. Along the way, it leads to several stone arrangements believed to date from the Bronze or Stone Age, the stone avenue on the Meisenberg, various menhirs and the Hochfels; it also passes old paved paths. This tour therefore combines woodland sections with historical and stone landmarks.
The Sonnwendweg is shorter and has less elevation gain than the Hochfelsweg, at 9 kilometres, 70 metres of elevation gain and an indicated walking time of around 2 hours and 45 minutes. The details on distance, elevation gain and walking time allow you to make a concrete comparison when planning your day. In Mehlingen, the Mehlinger Heide is also connected to the Palatinate Forest hiking trail network. Established in 2008, the “Rätselhafte Zeitzeichen” hiking network covers a total of 60 kilometres and links more than 50 stations.
Jewish history in Mehlingen
The Jewish cemetery in Mehlingen offers a glimpse into another chapter of the town’s history. It was established around 1800 and is an important monument to the region’s Jewish history. There are still 194 gravestones on the approximately 1,700-square-metre site; most date from the 19th century. The cemetery is a listed cultural monument, is part of the monument zone of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and is under special protection. The number and age of the gravestones give the site its own historical significance alongside the heathland scenery and hiking trails.
Whether you would rather plan your trip around the heath in bloom, a themed walk, a longer woodland hike or regional history, these different points of interest can influence your choice of holiday apartment in Mehlingen.
More places to discover
If you would like to broaden your search for places, you can also explore Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, Hütschenhausen, Stelzenberg, Niederkirchen, Rodenbach, Erzenhausen, Enkenbach-Alsenborn and Oberarnbach.
For the main travel overview: Kaiserslautern.
