Palatine Watershed
In the southern Palatine Forest, the German part of the Wasgau, the Palatine Watershed begins on the French border in the area of the Erlenkopf hill (473 m above NHN), where it is a continuation of the watershed in the northern Vosges. Always generally running from southwest to northeast it initially heads eastwards past Eppenbrunn and Pirmasens over the Großer Schiffelskopf () and reaches the region of Gräfenstein Land. From there it runs up the Hortenkopf () in the central Frankenweide. Several kilometres it passes through the hamlet of Johanniskreuz (), one of the highest settlements in the Palatine Forest. The watershed then reaches the area west of Waldleiningen in the Lower Frankenweide.
Frankenweide
The plateau with its extensive forests is a destination for hikers. All Palatinate Forest Club long distance paths marked with a cross and that radiate across the entire Palatinate, meet at Johanniskreuz in the heart of the Frankenweide. There are viewing towers on the Weißenberg and the Eschkopf. For mountain bikers there are courses at the Palatine Forest Mountain Bike Park and in the neighbouring region of Holzland.
Johanniskreuz, with its House of Sustainability and a few other houses, mainly hotels and restaurants, is the touristic centre of the Frankenweide. The Palatine Catholics Day and woodland services take place here and, on Sundays, especially in good weather, hundreds of bikers meet here. On the Hermersbergerhof, whose six-kilometre-long approach road between Wilgartswiesen and Hauenstein branches off the B 10 abzweigt and then continues as a narrow lane for ten kilometres to the "Landstraße" from Leimen to Johanniskreuz, is used for winter sports in good snow conditions; but due to the increasingly mild winters the skilift was dismantled in the 1990s. A toboggan run still exists, however.