Hike to Saut du Doubs

Last year we attempted to go see Saut du Doubs, but it was a little cold, wet and slippery. Parker wasn't very old and we were just carrying him in our arms. We thought better of this attempt and headed back to the car.

Today was different. It was a nice day for hiking - warm, but overcast. We had a few lite sprinkles which felt nice while hiking. We have a nice backpack carrier for Parker which he likes riding in. Kathleen and Payton put on water packs and we set off. Today we were going to see the waterfall on the Doubs river.

The river Doubs runs roughly northeast and is partly the border between Switzerland and France. We started our hike from the town of Les Brenets (CH). It is here that the river is backed up because of the narrow gorge downstream and thus you have Lac des Brenets. From here the hiking signs said we had a 55 minute walk. We started walking along the south side (the Swiss side), but soon were forced up into the mountains. We found out a little later that the river is faced with cliffs and there just isn't anyway to walk its shore. We found our way up to a paved road a walked on it. Being paved it was easy walking, but it was a case of not being able to see the forest (lake) because of the trees. We did come to a nice look out spot where we could see up lake and where we started from.
We explained to Payton how one side was Switzerland (left) and the other France (right). I couldn't see the dotted line down the middle of the river though... um.

The road led us to the end of the lake and to where it returns to being a river. This is the debarkation point for all the river taxis. From here it is only a 10 minute walk to the falls. The path is wide and smooth. A real easy walk. We made it to the falls and it was pretty cool. It is 27 m high (almost 90 ft.). Our view was from the Swiss side. We are saving the view from the French side for another time. You can get a much better view of the falls from the other side.

We did the smart thing and caught a river taxi back to our car. We'll come back for more hikes along this river. Farther downstream is another lake formed by a dam. We'll need to check out the dam.