Putten, Boeschoten and Hoef

East of Putten is one of the oldest and most beautiful forests in the Netherlands. Ancient oaks seem to move in the mists that hang in the forest. Twisted into wondrous shapes by the ravages of time, they popularly nickname the forest"the forest of the dancing trees\\\".

There are also dark parts of the forest where Douglas and Norway spruces form a dense roof of needles above you. The mysterious forest offers (predatory) birds, badgers, wild boars and red deer a good home, because nature is allowed to take its course here. Because of the tranquility, the chance of an encounter with wild animals, especially around dusk, is high. The Solse Gat is also located in the Speulderbos. This pit was created during the last ice age by a vortex of glacial water. And there is no shortage of cultural history either, because burial mounds from ancient times can be found in the area. Several special archaeological finds have been made at these cemeteries.

Mill't Hert is the only one of the two mills in the village center of Putten that has been preserved. The octagonal tower mill was built in 1899 to replace a mill that burned down a year earlier. Like its predecessor, this mill grinds grain. However, this is not always the case when the mill is running; the voluntary miller sometimes runs the mill without this being functional.

When you leave the mill behind you, you arrive at the Schovenhorst estate. This estate is over 160 years old. Via a small path that meanders across the estate, you reach the Kleine Pinetum; a closed experimental garden and tree nursery that was started in 1848. The garden has many beautiful vistas of the various exotic tree species that have been planted, including a crooked whorl spruce, a gigantic tall giant sequoia and a Japanese Tree of Life. You can see that a number of trees still date from that year by their height: they have now grown more than 40 meters high.

The Groot Spriel estate is also worth a stopover. Before an elegant house with a beautifully landscaped park arose in the middle of the woods in 1882, there was an old farm here. From the house, various view lanes run in all directions through the park and are connected to an outer ring that connects to the surroundings.