Ilse valley

Between Goslar and Wernigerode, the mountains are especially striking, where their slopes rise steeply from the northern foothills.

Heinrich Heine, the famous German writer, described the Ilse valley with its little river and the rocks of the Ilsestein enthroned above it.

In the 1830s, a country road was built from Ilsenburg through the Ilse valley running past the Brocken massif up to Schierke, paid for by Count Henry of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1772–1854).

The road made it much easier for tourists to reach the higher mountain regions; today it is closed to public traffic.

In or near the Ilse valley are the following checkpoints on the Harzer Wandernadel hiking network (in downstream order with checkpoint numbers in brackets): Gelber Brink (22), Große Zeterklippe (10), Brockenhaus (9), Stempelsbuche (8), Bremer Hütte (6), Gasthaus Ilsestein (30) and Froschfelsen (5).