Summary

The Dent de Vaulion summit in Switzerland offers stunning views of four lakes and other attractions, with easy hiking trails and nearby towns.

Abstract

The Dent de Vaulion, a 1483 m high mountain peak in canton Vaud, Switzerland, provides breathtaking views of four lakes: Lac de Joux, Lac des Brenets, Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), and Lac de Neuchatel. The hike up the mountain is steep but easy, taking around 1.5 hours from Le Pont, a small town at the end of Lac de Joux. The trail is surrounded by wildflowers in spring and early summer. At the summit, there's a small restaurant serving local dishes. The region also boasts the Risoud forest, the largest continuous stretch of forest in Europe, and the Orbe river, which emerges from Lac des Brenets and forms beautiful canyons. Future stories will cover other attractions in the Jura-Vallee de Joux region, such as the Nozon river, the cascade du Dard, the Gorges de l’Orbe, and the town and monastery of Romainmotier.

Bullet points

The Dent de Vaulion summit offers views of four lakes: Lac de Joux, Lac des Brenets, Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), and Lac de Neuchatel.
The hike up the mountain is steep but easy, taking around 1.5 hours from Le Pont.
The trail is surrounded by wildflowers in spring and early summer.
At the summit, there's a small restaurant serving local dishes.
The Risoud forest, the largest continuous stretch of forest in Europe, is nearby.
The Orbe river emerges from Lac des Brenets and forms beautiful canyons.
Future stories will cover other attractions in the Jura-Vallee de Joux region.

Two of the four lakes at sight from the Dent de Vaulion, a 1483 m high mountain peak with beautiful, easy-to-do hikes in canton Vaud, Switzerland. Photo by author.

One summit, four lakes

Not far from the Swiss city of Lausanne, the summit of the Dent de Vaulion offers great views of not 1 or 2, nor 3 but 4 lakes all around you. You are also close to the largest continuous forest still alive in Europe, the small city of Vallorbe, beautiful green canyons around rivers, a town built around a monastery, and the frontier with France. Check out here the snapshots of the lakes taken from the summit of the Dent de Vaulion, and stay alert for future stories on all the other attractions.

The small town of Le Pont (literally “the bridge” -and there is a bridge connecting two lakes right at this town!) is one of the starting points for a hike up the small but sharp mountain called Dent de Vaulion (literally “Vaulion’s tooth” — because the French word for tooth is used to call these kinds of mountains). Being quite isolated from the mountains around, the Dent de Vaulion offers beautiful views of 4 lakes and other interesting places including the Risoud forest, which is the largest continuous stretch of forest today in Europe.

Le Pont lies at one of the ends of a small elongated lake, Lac de Joux, in the homonymous valley. When hiking up from Le Pont, views of this lake at increasing altitudes accompany you all along:

View of Lac de Joux while biking up from Le Pont to the Dent de Vaulion. Photo by author Luciano Abriata.

The hike is steep but easy and not very long, because your starting point at Le Pont is already at around 1000 m, so there’s just 450–500 m to go up. It takes around 1.5 hours to walk up from le Pont to the summit.

And as you see above, it is perfectly doable by bike, with only the last 10 minutes being really hard. The total time by bike is for me around 1 hour, but this may vary substantially.

In spring and early summer the trail is full of wildflowers. In late summer you can still find some gems:

Violet flowers that you can relatively easily find while hiking in this region in summer. Photo by author Luciano Abriata.

At Le Pont, Lac de Joux dies giving place to a smaller lake, Lac des Brenets (another of the 4 lakes you see from the summit). This small lake has very interesting geology. It seems to die right there, but it actually filters through the soil to then emerge majestuous as the Orve river, in the Grottes de l’Orbe. I covered this river and the beautiful hikes you can do around it here, here, and here. A glance to motivate you to go check out these stories:

Check out my stories on the Orbe river: part 1, part 2, part 3. Photo by author Luciano Abriata.

Once at the summit, if you look West you see the two lakes I just introduced:

The Lac de Joux on the left, and the Lac des Brenets on the right, seen from the summit of the Dent de Vaulion. Photo by author Luciano Abriata.

An interesting fact is that both lakes can get totally frozen in harsh winters! When the ice is thick enough people gather to ice-skate in Lac de Joux. But beware of signs: if the local authorities place indicate the ice is not thick enough, you risk getting fines of several thousand Swiss francs if you have an accident and need to be pulled out of the water!

Then if you look South you see one of my favorite Swiss lakes, Lac Leman (Lake Geneva in English). I love this lake so much that I posted a story specifically about it, focusing on a beautiful beach on its shores.

Here’s the view of Lac Leman from the summit, in the far and shielded by the Alps:

Looking south, Lac Leman and the Alps -with almost no snow as the photo was taken in the late summer. Photo by author Luciano Abriata.

The fourth lake visible from the summit appears on the East. It’s Lac de Neuchatel, at the border between the homonymous canton and canton Vaud:

Check the Lac de Neuchatel in the back, right before the fog. Photo by author Luciano Abriata.

Information about visiting the region, and about future stories on this region

At the summit of the Dent de Vaulion there’s a small restaurant. I recommend it, especially its typical dishes. Check it on Google and when it’s open, and take into account that it is usually very busy on sunny days at lunchtime.
The Jura-Vallee de Joux region has several attractions to visit, that I will cover in subsequent stories: the Nozon river, the cascade du Dard, the Gorges de l’Orbe, the town and monastery of Romainmotier, the winter activities, and more.

I am a nature, science, technology, programming, and DIY enthusiast. Biotechnologist and chemist, in the wet lab and in computers. I write about everything that lies within my broad sphere of interests. Check out my lists for more stories. Become a Medium member to access all stories by me and other writers, and subscribe to get my new stories by email (original affiliate links of the platform).