Werra Water Hiking 8: Creuzburg - Treffurt

Depending on where you possibly stayed overnight in Creuzburg or whether you want to start the Werra Water Hiking tour here, there are three different boat launch points in Creuzburg: at the canoe station of Werratal Tours (Am Trockenbagger about 1.2 km before the Werra bridges), at the Werra Kanu active station shortly before the Werra road bridge, or directly at the old Werra bridge. From Creuzburg, the Werra winds northwards in large meanders through the Hainich Foothills and has to break through the Mihla plateau. The eroded Muschelkalk rocks remain as bands of rock with scenic rock ledges about 100 m above the river at the river bends (Ebenauer Köpfe and Nordmannstein).

Passing the very small villages Ebenau, Buchenau, and Freitagszella with a few houses (without their own boat landing stages), you reach Mihla after about 5 km. Just before the actual town, there is a boat landing on the right after a small agricultural commercial area at the club site of the Wassersportfreunde Mihla (rest area, tent meadow, water and other hikers are welcome). About 1 km further, the river is blocked after the Werra bridge by the Mihla weir (for a small hydropower plant). There are boat landings to portage on the left and right in front of the weir. On the left side (in front of the turbine house), the Paddler-Treff (restaurant, boat rental, events) invites you to rest. On the right riverbank (at the sports ground), the family-run restaurant "Graues Schloss" (knight's room, ancestral hall, hunting room, beer garden, accommodation) is not far away (approx. 100 m). The beautiful Mihla outdoor pool (with small campsite) can be reached about 600 m from the northern (town-facing away) end of the Werra bridge via the street Am Schwimmbad. Mihla is also the closest town on the Werra for exploring the Hainich National Park, the last undivided original "beechness" in Central Europe.

After the Mihla weir, the river makes a 180-degree loop into the field and meadow landscape in front of the Hainich and after about 1.5 km passes the Mihla outdoor pool again on the other side. There is a landing site on the right at the small natural campsite Ebenshausen (but no direct access to the outdoor pool opposite). Another km further is the village Ebenshausen with some pretty half-timbered houses. About 100 m after the pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Werra (Werratal Cycling Path), there is a boat landing on the right riverbank at Anger for a quiet rest. If Preisackern is not taking place, then not only mail but also tractors are busy here.

The Werra riverbank here repeatedly touches the woods of the surrounding lonely heights. The left inner section of this large Werra bow to the west is shaped by the Heldrastein (507 m), the "guardian" 300 m above the Werra valley at the border with Hesse (during the German division the border watchtower to Hesse was very real and completely unpoetic). With Scherbda and Schnellmannshausen, there are only 2 villages in this Werra bow, but not on the Werra. All Werra towns here are laid out on the right side. Two "Werra ears", about 4 km further, Frankenroda lies again on the right Werra bank (one already suspects who here had a hand in the previously certainly much larger Hainich forest). A nice landing place was set up at the green Werra promenade Steinweg at the beginning of the half-timbered village. In the village there is the Gasthaus & Pension "Werratal", the Café Gisela, and holiday apartments.

It is about 2 km along the Werra from Frankenroda to the secluded riding stable, country inn, & campsite Probstei Zella (restaurant, accommodation, bicycle/boat rental, carriage rides). Probstei Zella, which lies on the site of a former hermitage on the edge of the forested cliffs on the Werra, has boat landings on the right Werra bank at the campsite and about 150 m later at the beer garden.

Soon after Probstei Zella, the Werra leaves the forest area into a more open field landscape and reaches the village of Falken after about 2.5 km. Before the village, the Werra is dammed and divided at a weir for the Falken power plant. Directly in front of the obliquely placed weir in the river, there is a boat landing on the left to portage about 50 m over the meadow. After the weir, the Werra curves south of Falken for just over 1 km before the boat landing for this village is reached on the right bank about 250 m after the Werra bridge, near the village exit at the Wild Graben. In the village of Falken, the half-timbered houses on the Anger and the St. Martin's Church are worth seeing; there are inns, Veronika's Pension (accommodation, campsite, bike/boat rental, right by the boat landing), and holiday apartments.

From here, the Werra winds about 5 km leisurely through the fields to Treffurt, the Thuringian border town to the Hessian Ringgau. The romantic half-timbered town nestles against the mountain slopes that rise northwards of the Werra to Normannstein Castle. In Treffurt there are two boat landings: The first about 100 m to the right before the Werra bridge on the town side, roughly 350 m from the town center at the marketplace. The second landing is about 100 m after the Werra bridge on the left at the Werra meadow bank away from the town. Here in the garden and commercial area Unter den Linden, there is a rest area, car, and motorhome parking lots. Treffurt offers, in addition to impressive Franconian half-timbered architecture, shopping opportunities, hotels, guesthouses, holiday apartments, inns, and cafés. And Treffurt is a last "hotspot" of our Thuringian Werra Valley leisure offerings, as here Werra Water Hiking, Werratal Cycling Path and Werra Burgen Steig cross, which temporarily leaves the Werra towards Eichsfeld from Treffurt.