It is several years I have in mind to explore a very interesting and secluded mountain area: Steinernes meer, or the sea of Stones. It is a high karst plateau located in one of the ranges of the Berchtesgaden Alps. Dachstein limestone and karst features characterise the scenery from this place that looks like the Moon and assumed this shape 200 milions years ago when a tropical sea was up here. Some 800 karst caves have been identified in the Steinernes Meer so far. 

 Shortle the plan is this one. We travel first day (Thursday 15th August) to Schönau am Königsee and we take the boat till Salet. 

Before starting the hike at the Saletalm, you cross the spectacular fjord-like Lake Koenigssee by boat. The journey takes about an hour and is absolutely great! From Salet we hike to Funtensee and KArlingerhaus first. In fact, one finds the small mountain lake, which has become famous as the coldest place in Germany, at 1,600 meters altitude in a depression in the middle of the Stone Sea. This nature idyll holds with a low temperature of -45.9 degrees recorded on 24 December 2001 the German cold record and is due to its microclimate and its remote location a fascinating phenomenon. It is theorised that due to the unique situation of trapped cold air, a temperature of -55 °C is possible. The extreme cold spot at the lake is said to result in a reverse tree line, as no trees can grow at any point below about 60 m above the lake. The valley indeed is surrounded by Viehkogel (2,158m), Glunkerer, (1,932m) and Stuhljoch (2,448m)[3] which leads to the Funtenseetauern mountain (2,578m), named after the lake. From here we keep going up till our daily destination: Ingolstädterhaus, a beautiful hut located in the centre of Steinernes Meer where we will spend the night. The first day hike won´t be long, just 13 km but about 1800 m altitude gain. We will make breaks but you still need a certain degree of fitness for this.

The second day (16th August) we will have a great hike going mostly downhill through the heart of Steinernessmeer landscape enjoying an unusual landscape and on the backfround also king Watzmann, we go further through Wimbachklamm and we finally reach Wimbachbrucke where we can catch bus till Berchtesgaden (about 8-9 hours hike). From here we will catch the train back home. Here you can have a look where we go the second day ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEx6XwZWRSM