The Zinsel du Nord and its tributaries drain northwest in the North Vosges, especially in the Pays de Bitche in the east of the department of Moselle.

The Northern Zinsel begins at a height of about 225 metres above sea level at the confluence of the Breidenbach and Moderbach, in the village of Mouterhouse.

Whilst the Breidenbach rises at the Breitenstein aka Pierre des douze Apôtres near Goetzenbruck, the source of the Moderbach is at the Wasserfelsen (fr.

Near Gumbrechtshoffen it leaves the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park and, from Uttenhoffen, follows the N 62 road and the Niederbronn-les-Bains – Haguenau railway line, crossing the Hagenau Forest from Mertzwiller.

Other references are thought by Albrecht Greule to relate to the Southern Zinsel or the gunsinus rivus, a stream that has not been clearly identified, and which appear in old boundary descriptions recorded by Maursmünster Abbey.