From Switzerland to France hiking over the “Mount of Gold” -Part 2
Nature, autumn colors, a sea of clouds, and the snow-covered Alps
By the end of part 1 of this story, we had just entered France, almost at the very top of Mont d’Or. The last 20 minutes of easy hike will take us to the summit, where stunning views await.
Soon after we pass the limit with France, we are slightly above 1400 m.a.s.l. and the trees suddenly disappear. Now it’s only grass and thick, green, moist moss:
From the summit toward the Southeast, we get a stunning view (sorry, the photo doesn’t make justice to it) of the plateau lemanique i.e. the flatlands of Canton Vaud covered by a dense layer of clouds, on top of which the Alps emerge majestuous and already quite covered by snow:
The view right towards the East explains to us that the clouds “parked” on the plateau lemanique actually stop at the Jura mountains (one of which is Mont d’Or itself). The mountain peaks visible in the next photo are part of the Jura chain. To the left it’s France, and to the right it’s Switzerland. The low clouds on the Swiss side are due to water evaporating from the big lakes in the region: Lake Neuchatel and Lake Geneva.
To know more about the lakes in Canton Vaud, check this out:
We finally took our way back down toward Vallorbe’s train station, again going through forests and this time deviating through some open spaces covered in grass:
A magnificent view of Mont Blanc accompanies us along the descent toward the South:
We are now back in Vallorbe, where our train back home is ready to depart:
A quick but totally worth visit, that now I know I will repeat. Perhaps by bike?
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