Labské pískovce

The Czech half of the Elbe sandstone world outside the national park — table mountains, the Tisá rock walls and the deep Labe canyon at Děčín.

Děčín is the hub — under two hours from Prague by train, with rail along the river on to Dresden and ferry crossings linking the two banks of the Labe canyon, so both rims are in reach from one base. The walking combines level plateau paths with sudden edges: hours of easy pine forest, then a rock lip with two hundred metres of air over the biggest sandstone river canyon in central Europe. The other classic days head for the labyrinth walls of Tisá and up Děčínský Sněžník (723 m), the largest table mountain in Bohemia, with a stone lookout tower from 1864 on its rim.

The CHKO, protected since 1972, wraps around the České Švýcarsko national park — much of the best of the Elbe sandstone world lies outside the park’s boundary.