A trip with my dog from Schweizermühle to Herkulessäulen in Saxon Switzerland

Back in September of 2023, I took a trip with my dog to Saxon Switzerland (Sächsische Schweiz). While we were there, we went on a hike from Schweizermühle to the Herkulessäulen that passed by many beautiful spots.

Going hiking in Saxon Switzerland is definitely recommended. There are lots of hiking routes, and the area is really beautiful. My dog had a fabulous time.

If you are looking to spend more time in the region, I can certainly recommend the hotel that I stayed at in Hohnstein. If you’re interested you can find my review here. Near there, I can also recommend the hike to the Brand viewpoint (Brandaussicht).

THE ROUTE

If you’re coming by car, I would recommend to park at this parking lot which is free of charge. If you see the house in front of the beautiful rock formations, you have found the correct parking lot. The route that I followed starts directly from there.

Leaving the parking lot near Schweizermühle, we started on the circular trail leading from Schweizermühle to Ottomühle. This route is marked with a yellow circle symbol. The trail is generally well marked and easy to follow.

My dog was immediately excited about the terrain as we were going up and greatly enjoyed climbing up and down the rock formations and we soon found the first viewpoint.

Still following the route marked with the yellow circle, we continued towards the Bertablick viewpoint, via the Gedächtnishain and the so-called Rosengarten.

Afterwards, we continued following the route towards the Herkulessäulen. Please don’t be confused if the route takes you across a road. Just cross the road and continue to follow the waypoints indicating Ottomühle on the other side.

The next gem along the route is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Feste also known as Bielablick. From this viewpoint, you can already spot the following highlight – the stone formations known as Herkulessäulen. We then follow the path down and see them from below – even more impressive!

From here, we followed the circular route back to Schweizermühle to end our hike.

Note: If you are mostly interested in the Herkulessäulen rock formations and want to shorten the hike you can also park here instead and follow the more direct path from there.

HOW LONG IT TAKES AND WHO IT’S FOR

Overall, this hike took us a little over 3 hours. Since there are many routes available in this area, you have different options to make your hike shorter or longer.

I would suggest that you do some research ahead of time to pick your favourite spots and follow the waypoints to find them. Most of the trails are well marked and many intersect, so you can truly mix and match as you please. I found following the route marked with the yellow circle easy and it passes many highlights, so to me this was a great trail.

If you enjoy being in nature and your dog likes to explore, hiking in this area is for you!

THE BOTTOM LINE

This was a great hike to do with my dog. My pup loved climbing up and down the rocks and we had some beautiful views along the way. I enjoyed that the route covered so many highlight and really appreciated the well maintained waypoints. If you are in Saxon Switzerland, I wholeheartedly recommend taking your dog for a hike in this area.