Jizera Mountains, July 2023

Giant boulders dot the landscape of Jizerské Hory, the Isergebirge of lore, making for rather spectacular hiking across an impressive landscape located in northern Bohemia, close the Czech-Polish-German tripoint

I’ve spent the night in Hejnice, a small town well-connected by hourly trains to lively Liberec, the nearest transportation hub. Hejnice lives off tourism and maybe the odd pilgrim visiting the rather grand church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, with an old Franciscan monastery attached next to it. Sadly, the monks are long gone, but the monastery offers basic but absolutely acceptable accommodation in a peaceful setting, save maybe for the quarter-hourly ringing of the bells which I did not mind at all. In the old refectorium tasty local cuisine is being served. The hostel has a very useful free map of the area with all the trails, a blow up of the official 1:25000 map which is also sold in local bookstores and the main tourist office back in Liberec. The area around Hejnice is popular with local day trippers, mainly for cycling and hiking; hence expect plenty of visitors even early in the day.

Right behind the monastery the Jizera Mountains Beech Forest rises up dramatically into the sky. Shortly after dawn I took the main “red” trail which serpentines steeply and rather strenuously some 350 meters up to Ořešník viewpoint, rewarding you with great views of the forest-covered mountain landscape and the valleys down below. Ořešník is a very craggy mountain top, with steps carved into the rock bed, along with some iron ladders and handrails to make the final ascent. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe to climb up (there is a large wooden cross on the very top), however as I am neither sure-footed nor free from giddiness (also, as it was shortly after sunrise there were no fellow hikers around to provide help) I forewent what I am sure would have been a spectacular and memorable view.

The path then continues along a ridge to pretty Štolpich waterfalls, and then downstream along the homonymous rivulet back to Hejnice via Ferdinandov hamlet, passing along the way a small commemorative plaque to Sisi, Empress of Austria (having some interesting historical complications, as described on the helpful bilingual info board next to it).

Whereas beeches are the dominant trees of Jizerské Hory, this is really a quite mixed hardwood forest. For animals, I only saw some birds of prey circling about and a lonely toad next to the trail.

As the UNESCO core area is centered around the rough and rugged mountain slope most marked paths circle around its boundaries. If I were to re-visit Jizerské Hory I would want to try out the path along the ridge to Zadný Divočák peak (on the way to Poledník peak), from where, according to the local hiking map, it may be possible to take a small path back down into the valley. Given the rugged terrain this may or may not be feasible, though.