Semily is the district town on the Jizera river to which a lot of the surrounding hamlets belong. The original village is mentioned in 1352. Gold, copper and iron ore were excavated in the surroundings. The town was mostly wooden and several times it suffered fires. The biggest one was in 1691.

The Church of St Peter and Paul dating back to 1908 is Neo-Roman and stands in the place of the original Baroque church. The Baroque cemetery Church of St. John the Baptist dates back to 1723-27. The Baroque mansion from 1691 houses the District Office. The Museum and the Jizera Region Gallery are in the native house of I. Olbracht. Inside, there is a gallery of 25 great Semily personalities and a not traditional ethnographic exhibition. Semily is the birthplace of the politician Frantisek Ladislav Rieger (1818-1903) and the writer Ivan Olbracht (1882-1952). Both are remembered by memorials in the centre of the town. The prevailing industry of the town is textile.

Our trail starts in the square. Follow the red and blue trails past the common memorial to Antal Stasek and Ivan Olbracht. Walking along the red trail, pass through the Bitouchov village and follow the Jizera river down to the beautiful small chapel with an onion-shaped lantern. Behind Bitouchov the red trail meets the blue one leading from the Semily railway station. After a short part the yellow trail turns right and leads to the canyon-like Jizera valley.

Our trail continues along the red marked Rieger's Path which enters the forest and goes through the Jizera canyon. The path was built by the club of Czech Tourists from Semily in 1909. You will enter the canyon along a gallery which will help you get over a rock gate. It used to be even more narrow in the past and during floods drifted wood got blocked here. That is why the Semily factory owner Schmidt had the gulch enlarged to the present width of 15 to 20 m before he started to build his spinning mill.

Behind the gallery you will walk past the weir where a 1300 metre-long tunnel starts. It brings water to the Podspalov hydroelectric power station. Then you will pass the rock called At a Lion and ascend along a hairpin path to Böhm's Viewpoint which was named after the first chairman of the Semily branch of the Club of Czech Tourists. You can see very well the opposite 100 metre-high Krkavci (Raven) Rock and the railway line which overcomes the gulch with the aid of a few tunnels and galleries.

Behind the viewpoint there is a sheltered resting place behind which you will descend again down to the river. The trail leads here through a 12 metre-long tunnel. Behind the spring you will ascend again up above the Jizera surface. Pass the mouth of the tunnel and sheltered spring of Antal Stasek. You will reach the hydroelectric power station dating from 1921-26 which uses the great incline of the Jizera river in these places (24 m).

The red trail continues to the hotel in Podspalov (possibility of refreshment). In Podspalov there is also a railway station along the line from Zelezny Brod to Tanvald. You can use the railway to shorten the way to Zelezny Brod. Our trail continues left along the red trail across the bridge over the Kamenice river which flows into the Jizera river here. Then you have to walk along the road following the Jizera river till Zelezny Brod.

Zelezny Brod (Iron Ford) acquired its name in the 16th century because of the ford in the surroundings of which iron ore was excavated as early as in the 10th century. The original 14th century villages Brod and Brodec became a small town in 1501. The local glass production has a long tradition. The expert glass making school has been in the town since 1920. The Gothic Church of St Jacob was adapted in the Baroque style in 1763. In the cemetery there is a charnel house dating back to 1765 and a wooden eight-sided belfry dating back to 1761. To the south, above the town, there is a Baroque Church of St John of Nepomuk built in 1769.

In Zelezny Brod there are plenty of timbered houses of the urban type. In the local part called Travniky there is a conservation reserve of folk architecture. In the square there is an ethnographic Museum of Horni Pojizeri (Upper Jizera region) in the former burger house Klemencovsko from 1792 which has been a part of the savings bank building since 1936. Inside there is an exhibition of the development of glass making in Zelezny Brod. The Museum has a branch in a timbered house called Beliste, dating back to 1807, where used to be a tannery and dye-works. The exhibition focuses on the town and geological development of the Zelezny Brod region. The town is the birthplace of the painter Vlastimil Rada (1895-1962) and the composer Vlastimil Vipler (1903-72).

Our trail continues along the blue trail across the bridge over the Jizera past the bus station. Turn left to the yellow trail before the railway station. You can return to Semily by train and then you will again pass through the gulch of the Jizera by train which overcomes it with the aid of four tunnels.

If you decide to walk it, you will follow the yellow trail through Pelechov. Walk through the Mlynsky brook valley and ascend to Prosec. You will reach the main road behind the cattle farm. Walk along it together with the blue trail to reach the turning to the viewpoint at Krkavci skala (Raven Rock). The blue trail will lead you here. The viewpoint offers the most beautiful view of the Jizera valley. Return to the road with the yellow trail which will lead you safely back to Semily to the starting point of our trail.