Les Cascades des Gaudres des Alpilles

Dogs Unknown

E-Bikes Unknown

A ride in the Alpilles on good paths, mostly through forest.

With your back to the canal, turn right along the DFCI (fire road) that curves quickly to the left, taking you along the Gaudre de la Pistolle for a large part of the climb. Take the track adjacent to the vineyards. When you're almost at the end of these vines, continue following a good track that heads south, keeping the emerging wash on your right. There will be many possible turns, but keep heading south, bending to southeast and eventually across to the other side of the wash, which becomes harder to see.

The climb steepens. Farther on, there is a left-hand hairpin. This is the head of the Gaudre de la Pistolle. Ignore the path going to the right. You'll come to another turn, this time a hairpin to the right. Pass a track on the left and you'll then arrive at a junction of paths with GR6 white and red route markers. Descend on the track to the left (GR653D).

Ignore a track to the left and then another to the right on a bend. After bending to the left a little more, leave the GR in the Gaudre de Valmouriane and take the track leading off to the left.

The trail climbs gradually on a bend to a view point, then descends. Ignore the track to the left and continue downward along the Gaudre de Bovis. Cross a barrier. It leads to a Y. Continue on the left-hand track. Farther on, take note of a tower on the right (an old dovecote?). On a slight rise, keep to the main track and ignore a path off to the right.

After a short flat section the road begins to descend, takes a hairpin bend (Gaudre de Marchandon) and regularly descends down to the Canal des Alpilles after having passed a property to the right with several loud German Shepherd dogs behind a fence. At the canal, turn left to get back to the car.