Neuchâtel Canton, Noiraigue
Distance: 13.81 km.
Walking time: 3h 45 min, but SchweizMobil website suggests 4h 35 min.
Elevation gain: 745 m.
Access: Car, train or bus.
Parking: at Noiraigue train station or at Rue de l'Areuse 46.954280, 6.724952
Train: stop at VDT Noiraigue.
Bus: stop at VDT Noiraigue.
Parking:
There are two types of disk parking at the train station and surrounding streets. It may be slightly confusing. White lined parking spaces at the train station are for 10h, and blue lined spaces are for 2h. If there are no free spaces at white lined parking, I suggest parking at 46.954280, 6.724952, where there is a private, paid parking.
We discovered Creux du Van during the Covid-19 lockdown, and we were very eager to hike there once the country's guidelines eased off. After waiting for a few months, we were lucky to view this natural spectacle from different vantage points - from the bottom street (next to Grand Tour frame), both sides while hiking towards/from it and from the top. It was a big elevation gain and a long hike, but definitely worth for all the views. We came across many animals, which made our son very happy. He also walked the trail with us twice.
There was a lot of hikers at the village, but once we turned left to start our loop hike, we didn't pass many people until about 1km from Creux du Van. The path between Grand de Vy restaurant and Le Soliat restaurant was very busy with people. On the way back, we also passed quite a few hikers. We came across a few dogs, kids and babies in backpacks.
There are a few restaurants on this path. Following our route and direction, there is La Ferme Robert with a kids play park and goats farm. About 100m away from the farm (deviating from the loop hike), there are 2 large picnic tables and many information boards about local fauna, animals, land and local history. About 1km away from Creux du van, there is a restaurant La Grand Vy. Slightly deviating from the loop hike, there is Le Soliat restaurant at the top. Buvette les Oeillons is on the way back, about 40min away from Noiraigue. There was no play park as on the website's photos; but there were plenty of animals around - we saw chickens, goats, rabbits and guinea pigs. After stopping at Buvette les Oeillons, we were refused to leave a small rubbish bag after changing our toddler, despite that we purchased items at this stop and there was a large bin outside of the shop.
The hike started through the village and a meadow with cows (making our toddler very moo-ey and happy!). As we entered the forest, we immediately turned to the left, following a forest way with many tree roots. The ascent was quite steep until about an hour after passing Farm Robert. After that, the path is wider and the gradient is mush smaller. About a third way towards the top, the views started shining through the trees. The whole walk across the top of Creux du Van was open to the beautiful views around. The start of the descent also allowed views between the trees until the path took us deeply into the forest. Here, the signage changed from a walking path into a mountain trail. Most of the forest way until the Buvette was steep and shallow, with sticking out tree roots and stones. After the Buvette, the trail was much wider and easy to walk.
Creux du Van seems to be a good home to a variety of animals and plants. During our hike, we also spotted a few hikers with binoculars. The information boards below are located ~100 m from Farm Robert.
More information about this hiking route can be found on SchweizMobil website here. We hiked the loop trail in the opposite direction than it was suggested by the website for an easier ascent. More general information about Creux du Van can be found on their website here. General information and the history of Noiraigue can be found on Val de Travers website here.
Comentarios