Caves and valleys of the Vordere Alb

We start our journey at Bad Urach railway station, from where we follow the B28 in a north-easterly direction. We pass through the beautiful Webervorstadt, with its interesting building facades and old buildings, the most imposing of which is undoubtedly the Dicke Turm (1). The bulbous colossus rises on a green hill immediately to our left. After a few pedal strokes, we turn left onto Neuffener Straße, which leads north past the Festhalle (2). We keep to the right on the uphill stretch and ride at the foot of the Kälberburen into the Elsachtal. We leave the buildings behind us and pass some nice restaurants before the Pfähler valley splits off from the Marienthal, which we follow strongly uphill to the left. We soon come to the well-known Kaltentalhäuschen (3) with the Kaltenthalweiher (Kaltenthal pond) directly behind it, where the brave may dare to jump into the cool mountain water. Back in the saddle, we continue uphill through the narrow Kaltental valley, where we keep to the right halfway and return to the Kaltenthal pond. The next branch leads us into the Lenninger valley, at the end of which the small Kohlteichweiher (4) awaits, which we circle clockwise and then start the steep climb to the Fuchsberg. We don't go all the way up to the summit, but keep left beforehand on the path to the panoramic plain of Grabenstetten. After the relaxed descent, however, we only touch the town on the edge and immediately turn off onto the Urach road. We pass the "Spitzige Felsle" and continue our leisurely descent over the Lauereck into the Elsachtal valley. Here you will find the well-known Falkenstein Cave (5), which is well worth a detour for those interested in geology. Our route now leads southwest through the Elsachtal, which is lined with dense trees. We follow the country road, which we only leave to the left at the mouth of the Büchelbrunnenbach stream and ride steeply uphill along the rushing water to a refuge (6). Here we can take a break before we start the descent back to the country road, which then leads us left into the Pfähler valley. This brings us back to the route we knew from the outward journey, which we now ride back in the opposite direction. Soon the valley opens up and we reach Bad Urach, where we cover the last few metres to the train station, the starting point of our ride. At the end, we can take a stroll through the charming old town, where we can stop off at one of the numerous cafés and restaurants.