The relief of the natural environment is characterized by a distinctive ridge with steep hillsides, extending from the Pickelhaube (360.7 m above sea level (NHN)) in the north to the Rahnfels and the Heidenfels (496.0 m) in the south, and which drops steeply to the Eckbach valley, the Upper Rhine Plain and, especially, into the Isenach valley by 250 to 300 metres in altitude. Rivers both large and small have cut deeply into the sandstone beds, so that the landscape has a varied topography with V-shaped valleys, rock formations and cliffs. Larger valleys include the Langental to the northwest of the spur and the Krumbach valley beginning at the Ungeheuersee and running in a northeasterly direction as far as the Kleinkarlbach stream. In the south, on the other hand, the hill range is only drained by a few smaller streams that flow in narrow V-shaped valleys into the Isenach.