Le Noirmont - Le Doubs
I did this hike together with four friends on the 9th of October, 2022. It was one of those weekends where the weather was grey in most of Switzerland, so we decided to chase som sun and autumn colors on the border to France. We got inspiration for this hike from stage 2 of the Au fil du Doubs, but decided to start in Le Noirmont, to make the hike a bit shorter.
Full route: Swisstopo
We went from Zürich to La Chaux-de-Fonds by train and there changed to a bus taking us to Le Noirmont, where we started the hike. It was a really beautiful morning with clear blue skies, and after walking down from the bus stop, we started the hike by a lake surrounded by beautiful autumn colors.
Passing the lake, we now continued on the hiking trail along the river. The trail was constantly going up and down, and it was nice to some times be down by the river and some times higher up with different views.
The trail was very diverse, taking us through forest, past smaller waterfalls, rock walls and outcrops. It is not a very demanding trail, but it is constantly changing which we all really liked.
We walked in the shade for most of this hike, but it was nice to see the sun hitting the trees on the other side, enhancing the beautiful autumn colors. At one point, there is a longer stretch up high above the river, following a narrow gravel road.
We passed by a dam, and the views on this part of the hike were really great with the grey rock walls partly covered by the colorful trees. It had started to get more cloudy, but it was still nice and relatively warm.
We passed by another wider part of the river, with an amazing reflection of the surroundings. Here, we spend quite some time taking pictures, and also decided to have our lunch break as it was just after noon.
After lunch, we continued on the last part of the hike. The trail was more flat here, and it was a nice calm part of the trail. In general, it had been a very quiet and calm day as we had only met a few other hikers along the entire trail.
Towards the end, the river got more narrow and dynamic and once again had smaller waterfalls. We continued back to La Maison-Monsieur, from where we took the bus back to La Chaux-de-Fonds and here continued with the train back home to Zürich.
