Lac de Derborence and a Walk out of the Lizerne Valley

UPDATE 2020:  As of 2020, this trail which we walked out of the valley is no longer passable due to a landslide (until further notice)

Wednesday August 22, 2018 -- Day 4 of our second week of hiking vacation. When we spend a few days in Canton Valais, we also like to ride the bus up one of the side valleys of the Rhône Valley, to a lake at the end of the valley where we either walk around the lake or walk out of the valley.

This time we chose to ride up the Lizerne Valley to Lac de Derborence, on the North side of the Rhone Valley. It's the valley we saw when we were on top of Mont Rouge, that looked like there was a lot of forest along one mountain flank, where we could walk out of the valley and hopefully it wouldn't be too hot.

We learned some interesting things from the bus ride up the valley: Namely, Lac de Derborence is one of the "youngest" natural lakes of the Alps, there having been two massive rock slides in 1714 and 1749, which dammed the rivers and created the lake. The slides were so massive and quick that in the first slide, 55 homes and 15 lives were lost, and in the second 40 alp homes but no lives lost as the shepherds were able to get themselves and their flocks out in time. Also, the Post Bus travels into this valley since 1906. 

The ride up was VERY impressive! Narrow road blasted through the rock (tunnels with "windows" at regular intervals), and we looked down into the steep valley and across to the massive bands of exposed rock on the other side, hardly expecting that we would be able to walk there. The trail itself was a bit anticlimactic in the end, as it was wide enough for a car to navigate (which a couple did, although I wouldn't dare) so as a hiker, you never had to get near the steep edge that dropped into the valley. And in each recess where the bare rock bands were, what should have been waterfalls and rivers were all dry rock beds. But looking DOWN at the road we came up on, THAT was impressive. 

The last part was a long drawn-out section and a very steep descent back into the Rhône Valley.  Altogether it took us 4 hours to walk the 13 km out of the valley

From Mont Rouge on the other side of the valley two days earlier we saw the Lizerne Valley to the North, and decided we wanted to do a trip up that valley.

It was a one-hour bus ride on the narrow road North into the Valley

The bus ride was impressive, with lots of views into the steep valley. On the other side we could see the trail we were going to walk out on.

Looking at the bare slopes, we could hardly imagine that there was a trail on the other side for us to walk along. There is actually a road there...

Up ahead the road disappears into a tunnel which has a series of windows looking out into the valley. It was particularly impressive to see from the other side of the valley.

Video:  Two minutes of the bus ride into the back of the valley. At the end is a short piece showing a car going through the tunnel (viewed from the other side)

The valley opens up at the back and there were surprisingly many homes back here.

End of the line: The Hotel/Restaurant at the Lake, "Lac de Derborence".

We started by walking around the lake before heading out the valley to the right. Up ahead is a passage that takes you to the next valley to the East. That is a hike we also want to do one day.

This part was the best part of the hike, the narrow trail, with a view of the vehicle road at the back on the other side of the valley!

At this point the Post Bus was returning to Sion, so we were lucky to get a clear view of it as it entered the tunnel gallery!

Post bus entering the tunnel gallery on the East side of the Lizerne Valley.

Soon the "trail" became wide enough for a car to travel on. This quite surprised us. There are about 3 small houses on this side of the valley, and for this they built a road....

Nevertheless, this is a road I would not want to drive on.

They say you must not have vertigo to walk this trail, and yet the road is wide enough that you wouldn't need to get close to the edge like this.

Seeing the tunnel on the other side like this was AWESOME

Zoomed view of a vehicle driving through the tunnel

As we move further down the valley, different angle view of the tunnel on the other side.

These are the bands of bare rock we saw from the other side. It turned out they were not difficult to cross at all.

That's quite a wall they had to build to keep the road on this side from collapsing.

Superb view through the narrow ravine to Ardon in the Rhône Valley below

So at this point, we've pretty well made it out of the valley. All that remains is a very steep descent.

The steep descent took us past a few vineyards: They use even the steepest slopes here.

Nearing the valley bottom in the Rhone Valley (Ardon, where we caught the bus back to Sion)

(This picture was taken on the way up into the valley by bus, shows the steep last descent we did when we came back out on foot).

Altogether 13 km from Lac de Derborence to Ardon. Took us 4 hours. The weather stayed stable and we did have lots of shade for the hike, as expected.