Baumwipfelpfad Schwarzwald, Canopy walkway in Bad Wildbad, Germany

The Baumwipfelpfad Schwarzwald is a wooden walkway that winds about 1250 meters through the tree canopy, sometimes reaching 20 meters above the forest floor. The path takes visitors up into the branches and opens views across the different layers of the woods.

The canopy walkway opened in 2014, designed by architect Josef Stöger and built by Erlebnis Akademie AG, which also runs similar paths at Saarschleife, Bayerischer Wald, Rügen and Lipno. Its 38.5-metre tower is made mainly of wood, with twelve double-inclined glued-laminated supports arranged symmetrically and leaning both outward and clockwise, giving the structure the look of a twisted cup.

Fifteen comic panels line the route as part of a comic rally aimed at children, and in 2016 this rally was recognised as an official project of the UN Decade on Biological Diversity. Balancing beams and wobbly elements turn the walk into a play route, while didactic stations explain the forest ecosystem.

The entire walkway is wheelchair and stroller-friendly with a gentle slope throughout the 1.2-kilometer route and no stairs to climb. Wear shoes with good grip, since the wooden surface can become slippery, especially when wet.

The tower's twelve glued-laminated main supports are tilted both outward and clockwise, so the structure reads as a twisted cup. The 614-metre ramp climbs inside them through nine turns to a twelve-sided platform ringed with steel cantilever beams, and orientation arrows on the parapet point to other canopy walkways run by the same operator.