The Red Moor lies in the southern part of the Red Moor Nature Reserve which covers an area of 314.7 hectares. This reserve, designated in 1979, the name of which is taken from the raised bog, lies mostly above the 800 metre contour, but elevations range from 720 to 835 metres above Normalnull. It is one of the oldest and largest nature reserves in Hesse and lies between the Wasserkuppe and the Heidelstein on the gently rolling saddle of the High Rhön. It measures 3.5 kilometres from north to south and 0.6 to 1.2 kilometres from east to west. There are other smaller wetlands with thinner layers of peat in the nature reserve formed around three hollows, each the source of a stream. The stream draining the lowest point of the moor is the Moorwasser (bog water). It flows south into the Schwarzbach, which discharges into the Brend at Bischofsheim its waters making their way via the Franconian Saale to the drainage basin of the Rhine. Within the moor itself, the Moorwasser separates the Little Red Moor to the southeast from the Great Red Moor to the northwest. Above the tailstream of the artificial embankment built in 1973 is a small reservoir. Another source stream, the Feldbach, flows westwards into the Fulda. A third stream, the Grumbach, flows northwards into the Ulster, a tributary of the Werra. The Werra and Fulda later converged to form the Weser. The reserve thus lies on the watershed between the Rhine and the Weser.