Vercors: Gorges de la Bourne and Combe Laval
70 km (43 miles), 1 hr 45 min, advanced
Photo: Anthospace, CC BY-SA 4.0, resizedMotorcycle ride in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Ardèche Gorge and the Orgnac plateau
70 km (43 miles), 1 hr 40 min, intermediate
Between Vallon-Pont-d’Arc and Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, the gorge is a national nature reserve. A demanding 24 km hiking trail runs through it, with a night at the Gournier bivouac. The D290, the gorge’s scenic road, follows the clifftop for about thirty kilometres and lines up around ten viewpoints, from the Pont d’Arc to Serre de Tourre and La Madeleine. After Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, the way back to Vallon crosses the garrigue plateau through Orgnac-l’Aven. No petrol station on the clifftop road, heavy traffic, and viewpoint car parks packed in the afternoon in July and August.
Stops along the way
- SStart: Vallon-Pont-d'Arc
- 1Pont d'Arc, after 6 km (3 miles)
- 2Belvédère du Serre de Tourre, after 10 km (6 miles)
- 3Belvédère de la Madeleine, after 21 km (13 miles)
- 4Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche, after 39 km (24 miles)
- 5Orgnac-l'Aven, after 53 km (33 miles)
- SFinish: Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, after 70 km (43 miles)
Download the GPXTrack and stops as a GPX file, for a sat nav or another app.
Photos along the route
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Route planned by MotoLert with Valhalla on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Photos from Wikimedia Commons, with the author and licence under each image.