3 summer hikes near Saint-Jean-d’Aulps

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In summer it’s way easier to hike in the mountains. The previous blog ‘The 6 most beautiful hikes in the winter near Morzine’ describes beautiful hikes in the neighbourhood of Morzine in the Haute-Savoie region of the French Alps. Those 6 hikes are perfect to do during the winter, but you can easily do them in summer too. Check out the winter hikes and try them out in summer.

During summer a must do hike in Morzine is Pointe de Nyon. It’s not an easy hike but it’s worth the view.

The beautiful hikes that will be discussed in this blog around Saint-Jean-d’Aulps are:

Three female hikers posing from the back looking at a valley in the French Alps

This blog will give you 3 nice hikes that you can start near Saint-Jean-d’Aulps. This village lies close to Morzine and is amazing for some peaceful hiking. If you’re staying in Morzine, it’s easy to go to Saint-Jean-d’Aulps for a hike.

Woman piggy back riding on a man in front of a distant valley in the French Alps

Tip: if you go hiking make sure to wear decent hiking shoes. Bring enough water (I always take my Osprey water bag it’s perfect), snacks, electrolytes for in your water, sun protection and bring your walking sticks if you prefer. I also always recommend bringing a headtorch in case you don’t make it back in time and a whistle for safety reasons.

Woman in a dress posing in front of Montriond Lake on a sunny day, French Alps

Tête D’éléphant in Saint-Jean-d’Aulps

  • Duration: 1.5 hours
  • Distance: 5.1 km
  • Elevation: 302 meters
  • Level: medium

The hike is named Tête D’éléphant, in English elephant’s head, because the rock looks like the head of an elephant. You will hike from Les Onches to La chaux.

To start the hike, you can park your car at the crossing of Route de Bellecombe and Route de la Villaz. From there you should hike up the road until you see a mountain path on your left side. Follow this mountain path all the way up the elephant’s head. On the path you will pass by two other crossings. Take the left side of the two crossings that you will pass until you reach the top near a cross.

A group of five people with two dogs posing in front of a mountain range in the French Alps

On the top you have the most beautiful view over the Mont Blanc.

The Joranloup in Saint-Jean-d’Aulps

  • Duration: 2.5 hours
  • Distance: 7.63 km
  • Elevation: 440 meters
  • Level: medium

The Joranloup is quite an intensive hike but worth the views. You can park your car on the Route de la Valettaz d’en Haut. Make sure you drive all the way up; the road will finish at some point. It’s best to search a parking place before the road ends.

When you’ve parked the car, you hike the way up the Route de la Valettaz d’en Haut. You follow the hiking trail in the direction of the Joranloup. After you reached the Joranloup you go in the direction of Le cornet and then you follow Les Adrets.

After Les Adrets you hike back to the Route de la Valettaz d’en Haut to finish the loop.

Pointe de Nantaux

  • Duration: 5 hours
  • Distance: 12 km
  • Elevation: 1,174 meters
  • Level: hard

The hike up the Pointe de Nantaux is hard, and you need to be prepared. You can park your car near where Route du Plan de Lesse and Route de la Chapelle crosses each other. When you’ve parked your car, you hike up the road Chemin de Nantaux. After hiking up you will see that the road goes to the left, but you need to go straight ahead following the mountain path.

You will have a part where the path splits up, you need to take the path on the right that goes uphill. From there you go all the way up to Les Mottets (1,994m). After Les Mottets you follow the way up until you reach Pointe de Nantaux (2,170m).

There are many more hikes around the neighborhood so go and explore.

Tip: after the hike you can go to the bar ‘Le National’ they serve good food and on Tuesday you get two pizzas for the price of one. They also do a quiz every week and other events. Check out their Facebook page to see the events.

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