Stone-rich the land, poor the people. This reputation has accompanied the Vogelsberg until the recent past. Barren basalt soils allowed little more than livestock farming, and there was no commercial connection, as none of the main arteries ran through the region, where, according to an old mockery, the plums take two years to ripen. In the second they are turned over. The disadvantage has long since turned into its opposite. Just sixty kilometers from Frankfurt, those looking for relaxation will find a region that is barely sprawled, and has also been protected for 65 years by the Vogelsberg Nature Park's claim to preserve nature and the cultivated landscape.

Since the knowledge of sitting on Europe's largest volcanic field, some priorities have shifted. Around 200 geotopes have been recorded and most of them made accessible. The nature park now operates under the name of "Vulkanregion", most recently ennobled as "National Geopark" - one of 17 in Germany. This rating also recognizes the fact that the Vogelsberg has done its homework for the effective communication of the stone empire, and that far beyond the core area to the periphery such as Homberg (Ohm) in the far north-west. There a “GeoTour Felsenmeer” bundles everything relevant to rock. Starting in the half-timbered town enthroned on a high basalt cone, it goes past sinkholes and earlier pits to the largest basalt quarry in Europe and finally to the peculiarity of a "sandstone rock sea".

The Schweinsberger Moor is not by the wayside.

The biotope, designated as Hesse's 100th nature reserve in 1977, with its wide reed areas, is the most important refuge for waterfowl in the Upper Hesse region.

Behind it is the Schweinsberg, which is also extremely worth seeing.

Where only a stepped gable peeks out from tall trees, you will be surprised when you step closer to the mighty fortress walls around a castle complex and the late Gothic St. Stephen's Church with tombs.

Directions

Conveniently, a parking lot has been thought of for the "GeoTour Felsenmeer". The entrance is signposted from the central traffic circle: Berliner Straße - there also free parking lanes - and after 300 meters left to the end of the street Zum Hohen Berg. When arriving by bus, get out at the town hall and come over via Frankfurter Straße. In front of the parking lot, a large board and the marking of stylized volcanic cones point out the circle. Instead of rocks, you will initially enjoy different natural scenarios. The initial meadow orchards turns into forest, which opens up to a long avenue of cherries populated by sheep, followed by a phalanx of mighty beeches and linden trees, in front of which the path leads around a sunflower field to the right in open land.

The extensive hollows, as one of the many information texts knows, are relics of several sinkholes that have been handed down to 1571.

Probably undermined layers of clay gave way.

The basalt cover is not as closed everywhere as it can be seen when we are taken by detour to the lookout point at the basalt quarry.

Immediately on the surging Red Sea

Back, it is said between meadows, and when the slope starts, the geotour takes a few hooks to an asphalt cross path.

Here it is advisable to briefly leave the main route to the right in order to enter the sea of ​​rocks from above: 200 meters to the high-voltage line and left, almost in the opposite direction to the geotour into the forest.

If you only want to use this, then turn left at the cross path, past the sheep trough and the thick stones formation, and from below into the scree slope.