Hiking through the "Gorges de Court" near Moutier in the Jura

Wednesday Nov.20^th, 2019 – It was an unusual outing we did this particular day off, because when we checked the weather report the night before, it was showing sunny weather only in the far West and in the Sion area down South, but both those areas had lots of snow except the region around Delémont, a city in the Jura hills close to the French border. On a whim we decided to go visit that city (2.5 hours by public transit) and depending on how low the snow was on the hillsides, pick some local trail to walk once we got there.

Big disappointment in the morning when we had thick fog on the entire trip there, which was just starting to lift in the area near Delémont… but as the train pulled in to the station amidst this blanket of fog, I said I’d rather ride the train all day than walk anywhere in the fog. 

What the city of Delémont looked like when we got ther at 10:50

So we stayed seated till the next town of Moutier, and what a surprise as there was no fog there at all, not 15 km South of Delémont.

After visiting the tiny town and buying sandwiches for our lunch, we headed into the “Gorges de Court”, a ravine carved out by the River Birs over millions of years, and just two hours to walk through from Moutier to Court. True, there was quite a bit of shadow (being that it was a narrow gorge) and yet lovely moments of sunshine and much better than fog! The Internet description of the gorge promised several bridges and stairways and a hand-hewn tunnel (very few as it turns out) but the highlight was another small herd of Chamois way up on the rocky cliffs, spotted of course by Urs, as he has very good eyes for that.

We had quite a long time to wait for the train in Court, and although we had brilliant sunshine, we could see the fog rolling over the mountain from the South… our train trip back took us through the mountain into that fog on the South side, so I would say we had a successful outing, though a short one, just because we did manage a few hours of sunshine.

The Castle of Moutier, now housing government minitries

Sitting on the Castle Wall

The police station (the prison was just behind it) and the Protestant Church

   

View over Moutier to the Gorge which we are heading to after walking around the town a bit

 

It was so nice to meander through the park in the sunshine, seeing as the entire way here was foggy!

City Hall. Originally we were going to catch a bus from here to the entrance of the gorge, but since the entire walk to Court (the next town at the other end of the gorge) was two hours, we decided to walk there as well.

We knew we would have lots of shade, but the sunshine through the forest was lovely

One of a handful of bridges to cross the Birs River

Walking through the "Gorges de Court". A road and railway line go through here as well, but it wasn't very bothersome. 

At two places the trail actually crossed a bridge UNDER the motor vehicle road

The River Birs, carving out the gorge over millions of years.

 

Sunshine and no fog!

The sign warns of falling rocks, and suggests to avoid stopping for a picnic

The trail passes along steep cliffs

At about that spot Urs saw some Chamois. I zoomed in on them with my camera to try for some close-up photos.

  

Close-up photos of the chamois

VIDEO

There were three or more chamois running up the cliffs on the other side of the railway line. 

Passing through the single tunnel which apparently was hewn by hand

One of a handful of bridges we had to cross. The wood was slippery

Some impressive geological formations, where at one point the earth's crust was pushed up to 90 degrees.

The train from Moutier to Court passes through the gorge as well. We rode the train back to Moutier after we exited the gorge.

Lots of sunshine in Court, after exiting the gorge. It was early and we still could have walked more, but this time we just sat for 45 minutes in the sunshine at the train station waiting for our train back. 

And across the mountain range South of us we could see the fog pressing from the South, trying to cross the mountain range but dissipating as it got to the North side.  Good for us, we had the sunshine!

We waited here at the train station in Court for 45 minutes enjoying the sunshine, which most of the rest of the country's low-lying areas did not have!

On the way through the Jura countryside.

 

For us a very short walk from Moutier to Court through the "Gorges de Court". Main point was finding the one sunny place that was not already covered in snow!

And then I checked the webcam for Lake Zug (back home) and this was the weather there all day!